Art Curriculum

Each child at our school will have the opportunity to experience the aesthetic and creative area of learning through Art and Design. The children are given experiences in using a wide range of materials, tools and media. This experience is intended to promote an increased sensitivity and a development of art/design techniques. The children are encouraged to use observational skills to develop visual perception and to improve manipulative skills in the execution of their art work.

Art also complements other curriculum areas and we endeavour to display the children’s work to its best advantage, creating a bright, stimulating environment which reflects the quality of the work carried out in the school.

 

Please click here for an overview of the units.

Art Year Overview

 

Please click the link below to see the National Curriculum for Art.

Primary- Art- National Curriculum

St Patrick’s Art Progression

 

Curriculum Statement

Intent

 

At St Patrick’s, we want our school motto ‘May Christ be seen in us’ to be central to all lessons, where children always behave in Jesus’s image. The core Catholic values will remain in teamwork within group DT projects and Artistic collaboration. 

 

Through the teaching of Art and DT, St. Patrick’s intends to:

  • To engage pupils in artwork through allowing them to explore creative freedom.
  • To develop their ideas, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.
  • to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas
  • to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
  • ensure pupils develop their skills as they move up the school. Building upon and extending, rather than simply repeating the knowledge of the previous years. Continuing to grow and develop as creative artists and designers.
  • explore great artists, architects and designers in history.
  • Set high standards and a high profile for artistic and design projects within and outside of school.
  • To develop confidence and skills in the delivery of Art & DT for teaching staff.

 

Implementation

 

Following discussions with staff, I felt it was important to arrange for the delivery of some training on how an art lesson can be delivered effectively. A local artist came to speak to staff during a twilight session which enabled us to experience first-hand a lesson which would engage pupils of all abilities and confidence levels. In addition to this the artist also held workshops for Y3 and Y5. The topic of North-East landmarks meant it was engaging and relevant to the children.

 

The Art and Dt curriculum has been designed with skill-based topics. This ensures that skills can be easily linked to classroom topics as well as making it clear for both staff and pupils which skills are being developed within lessons. Year by year existing skills are developed with clear expectations as well as introducing new skills. This ensures pupils are not simply repeating the same learning year after year and ensures that if you walk through the school you see the development and confidence progress as you journey up the year groups. Additionally, to boost teacher confidence the curriculum provides clear artist recommendations to support modelling and clear examples of artistic skills and technique. To ensure high standards and motivation for pupils there are several events to excite pupils and give a target to work towards. Examples being:

  • whole school S.T.E.M challenges where pupils combine their DT skills with mathematics, science and teamwork!
  • whole school art shows where pupils are proud to showcase their work.
  • Artist visits such as Emma Scott or the team of Lebanese artists that visited pupils in collaboration with SIRF. The high standards don’t stop at the school gate as pupils partake in Art and DT projects outside of the classroom such as the pupils worked with the artist Morwenna Catt to create fantastic costumes for the Stockton Council Reindeer Parade.

 

Impact

 

By the end of the year, at least 25% of children in each year group achieved greater depth in Art and Design. During pupil voice sessions, pupils expressed renewed enthusiasm for the subject and said they enjoyed being given more creative freedom and independence. Staff said they felt more confident in allowing children this freedom and felt they knew how to guide this freedom carefully,