Intent

Learning within art and design stimulates creativity and imagination. It provides visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a special way of understanding and responding to the world. A high-quality art and design education should inspire, engage and challenge children - enabling pupils to communicate what they see, feel and think through the use of colour, texture, form and pattern. Art and design teaching at Oliver’s Battery is fully inclusive to every child. At Oliver’s Battery we embrace the beautiful grounds we are situated in and embed outdoor learning into our art and design curriculum. We also make use of the local environment for example, ‘art in the park’.

Aims:

• To engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.
• To fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for art and design, provide a broad and balanced curriculum, ensure the progressive development of knowledge and skills.
• To enable pupils to evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
• To instil an appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts by developing a knowledge of significant artists, craftspeople and designers and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
• To give pupils exposure and knowledge about a diverse range of artists, craft makers and designers.

Implementation:

At Oliver’s Battery, we will achieve this by:

• Teaching art regularly. The children will cover an art topic at least once every other term and will also have additional opportunities to engage with art and design activities throughout the school year.
• Teaching art and design discreetly to enable children to develop knowledge and skills specific to art and design.
• Using a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school supported by Access Art.
• Teaching a skills-based curriculum, which covers drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles and printing.
• Re-teaching skills throughout the children’s time in school. Skills are revisited and honed in a spiral curriculum, which progresses in terms of depth and challenge, to build on the children’s previous learning.
• Ensuring that each child develops their skills and techniques in a way appropriate to them, through clear differentiation and support, active and purposeful experiences, and using a variety of art materials and teaching strategies.
• Making use of our extensive grounds by taking art and design outside when appropriate.
• Fostering an enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts and a knowledge of artists, craftspeople and designers by introducing pupils to a wide range of contemporary and historical artists and craftspeople.
• Introducing children to artists and art movements directly linked to the skills or topics they are covering.
• Utilising a sketchbook approach, so that children feel safe to experiment and take risks, without the fear of doing something “wrong”.
• Openly promoting art and design as a possible further study or career choice.
• Encouraging each child to evaluate their art and design work and that of others, both with peers and adults.
• Celebrating effort, progress and achievement in art through displays, exhibitions and enrichment activities, such as trips out and competitions.

In EYFS the children have daily access to a variety of media and materials which they can explore to produce their own creative work. Provision is carefully planned to suit the interests of the children, whilst developing the necessary skills they are working on. Through on-going observations of the children, the adults have an in-depth knowledge about each child’s development. This ensures that the adults facilitating learning know each child’s next steps and can give the children the learning opportunity and experience they need to develop their skills in art. We place high importance on EYFS, as we know this provides the fundamental base for all learning.

Impact:

By the end of their time with us, we want pupils to have learnt, improved and embedded a range of artistic skills. They should have an awareness of a broad range of artists and craftspeople, and be able to consider and discuss the artworks they come across. We want our pupils to be confident to explore, experiment and take risks, placing value on the process and journey that they take, not just on the finished product. Most importantly, we want children to have found and enjoyed a creative outlet – a means of self-expression and enjoyment.

“Every child is an artist.

The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

Pablo Picasso