ART
what we say about art at dean bank primary school
Steven – “Painting pictures is fun.”
Jayden – “Mixing and making new colours is fun.”
Jessica – “I like how you get to express yourself and show what you can do.”
At Dean Bank Primary School, we value the importance of art and design as a vehicle for developing creativity, individual expression, independence, resilience and self-reflection. Our curriculum allows children to participate in and experience a broad and balanced range of art and design activities, equipping them with the knowledge, skills and experience to experiment, invent and produce their own works of art, craft and design. Pupils are encouraged to experiment with a range of different materials and techniques to bring their ideas to life whilst opportunities to annotate and practise art and design techniques when using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space are embedded across the art curriculum through the use of individual sketchbooks.
INTENT
As a school, we want our children to have a natural sense of wonder and curiosity when studying a wide variety of artwork to know how art and design has contributed to our culture and understanding of our history and the world. We empower children to discover a range of artists and to begin to understand the development of their particular art forms, whilst enabling them to explore their own and others’ cultural heritages. Children are encouraged to take inspiration from these key artists and create their own artworks in their particular styles. Visits to art galleries and visiting artists, designers and architects are planned where possible to enhance the curriculum and to enable children to draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.
Opportunities are provided within lessons for children to work on their own and to collaborate with others, on projects in two and three dimensions and on different scales. We also expect children to be able to look at an image or a piece of art and to gain an understanding of it, not just react to it. We equip them with a progressive range of skills and vocabulary that enables them to describe what they see in detail and to provide evidence for their observations or when discussing their own and others’ artwork.
Time and space are prioritized within the curriculum to explore new themes, sensations and ways to be creative without the need to be perfect as we believe that the process takes precedence over the product. We want our children to see the enjoyment and satisfaction in the development of producing art to enable them to feel safe, secure and happy, to produce their most creative work. Art also encourages children to express feelings and emotions and recognise how it makes an impact on us as citizens.
IMPLEMENTATION
Within art, teachers are provided with medium term planning for each term. This clearly sets out the sequence that knowledge and skills should be taught; prior learning to be built upon; key vocabulary; possible misconceptions; activities to impart knowledge; an emphasis on working as an artist; and how current learning will lead to future learning. The priority for teachers is on preparation rather than planning so that they focus their attention on developing their own knowledge and understanding and providing high-quality teaching and resources. Teachers will also plan opportunities for retrieval and recall of key knowledge to support children build secure schemas so that they can retain the new knowledge and skills taught.
Art Lessons
Art lessons at Dean Bank should follow a similar pattern in both key stage 1 and 2 in order to ensure consistency and support children in engaging successfully with the subject.
All art lessons should begin with Squiggle Time. This is a short starter session with a focus on developing fine motor skills and increased dexterity but also to help children to relax as a form of mindfulness. Following this, children should have the opportunity to recall key knowledge and prior learning should be made explicit in order to support them to build secure mental schemas. After sharing of the learning objective, the introduction of key vocabulary should take place to support understanding and manage cognitive overload (some vocabulary may not be shared if it needs to be taught alongside the concept to support understanding).
The example below outlines what an art lesson at Dean Bank should contain:
- squiggle time
- activation of prior knowledge (this could be quizzes, short activities and teacher-led retrieval)
- sharing of learning objective
- vocabulary introduction
- content teaching – teachers are expected to model skills in their own sketchbook
- tasks
- mini-plenaries may take place throughout the tasks/lesson
Art in EYFS
Art in EYFS is designed so that it provides children with a foundation of knowledge and skills that will support them as they move through school. It promotes open-ended creative learning, placing emphasis on the creative journey and nurturing children to become confident and independent creators. Skills and knowledge linked with art are explored within expressive arts and design but are also present in many of the other main areas in EYFS. The main emphasis is on:
- building dexterity skills
- exploring materials and mark making in a playful way
- using bodies and imaginations to inspire making
- exploring how children can reflect and share their views about what they have seen or made
- exploring how art enriches our lives.
IMPACT
Teachers will be using formative assessment continually within their teaching and using this to support their teaching and support children to develop the knowledge and skills appropriate. They will then use recall and retrieval activities to support students to retain information and support their own ongoing assessment. Staff will record a student’s progress against the relevant knowledge and skills objectives for the unit using the online Insight assessment system. Children will be judged as working towards age-related expectations or working at age-related expectations based on the number of objectives achieved at the given assessment point.
In EYFS, teachers will use the setting’s assessment system to track progress against the prime and specific areas but will also record evidence of children developing key skills and knowledge through the use of seesaw.