Art

Art at St Joseph’s:

Art and Design at St Joseph’s aims to inspire pupils and develop their confidence to experiment and invent their own works of art. Units of lessons are sequential, allowing children to build their skills and knowledge, applying them to a range of outcomes. The formal elements, a key part of the National Curriculum, are also woven throughout units. Key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Units in each year group are organised into four core areas; Drawing, Painting and mixed-media, Sculpture and 3D, and Craft and design.

Intent:

Our intent is to give pupils every opportunity to develop their ability, nurture their talent and interests, express their ideas and thoughts about the world, as well as learn about art and artists across cultures and through history. Children will develop their interest and curiosity about art and design through a series of lessons offering skills progression, knowledge progression and offering children the opportunity to respond, ask questions using appropriate vocabulary, and demonstrate their skills in a variety of ways. Lessons will offer the chance for children to develop their emotional expression through art to further enhance their personal, social and emotional development. We believe every child is an Artist.

Implementation:

Lessons are always practical in nature and encourage experimental and exploratory learning with pupils using sketchbooks to document their ideas. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all pupils, and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils by providing a highly visual record of the key knowledge and techniques learned, encouraging recall of skills processes, key facts and vocabulary. Art is taught once per week, alternating with Design and Technology termly.

Impact:

Our Art curriculum is designed in such a way that children are involved in evaluation, dialogue and decision making about the quality of their outcomes and the improvements they need to make. By taking part in our regular discussions and decision-making processes, children will not only know facts and key information about art, but they will be able to talk confidently about their own learning journey, have higher metacognitive skills and have a growing understanding of how to improve. Children’s work is constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Pupils should leave primary school equipped with a range of techniques and the confidence and creativity to form a strong foundation for their Art and Design learning at Key Stage 3 and beyond.