Art and Design Policy
‘Purpose of study Art, craft and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality art and design education should 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. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.’
The National Curriculum 14
Aims The national curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:
§ produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
§ become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
§ evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
§ know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms. Attainment targets
Key stage 1 Pupils should be taught:
§ to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
§ to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination
§ to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space
§ about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work
Key stage 2 Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design. Pupils should be taught:
§ 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]
§ about great artists, architects and designers in history.
Planning and Curriculum
The school follows the Foundation Stage Curriculum using Development Matters and the National Curriculum.
Planning is based on the learning challenges for Art and Design as outlined in the National Curriculum, which has been carefully modelled on developing skills and deepening the children’s experiences and understanding as the years go on.
All year groups will use the Art and Design curriculum map to inform planning and ensure progression in breadth of skills/ knowledge throughout the school.
Pupils are given opportunities to formulate ideas, create and evaluate through their knowledge block with the focus being on skill development. If an area doesn’t fit into the skill then the art sessions can be independent. Children should have experience in the 4 areas of art each year: Materials and printing, Painting and Printing, Drawing and Art movements.
Pupils should complete artist studies before completing a skill, looking at their time in history and the artist’s background and nationality. Teachers should ensure that they are covering artists across the world within their year group, to demonstrate cultural representation.
Classroom Organisation
All pupils will wear painting shirts or aprons when painting or modelling to protect clothing.
Tables will be completely covered with plastic covers or newspapers to protect them and save Art time when cleaning up.
All other equipment will be removed from tables to prevent damage to items.
Most art equipment is specific to year groups so can be stored within their classroom. Any materials that can be shared- paint brushes, paints, glue, a rage of papers will be stored in the central storage.
Display
Children’s artwork selected for display will be mounted whenever possible and labelled to show learning intentions and knowledge block links.. Each class has got A3 frames to display exemplary pieces of art, as well as specific pieces of sculpture being displayed around the classroom.
Assessment
Teachers complete art trackers after each area to show if children are emerging, expected or greater depth in a specific area. Teachers use the colour coded system to track this, which can then be passed on to their new teacher so that they can ensure that they continue to progress and be challenged. This then enables teachers to differentiate the challenge in the lesson, and gives them guidance on who made need which level as it builds on from previous learning.
Inclusion
Lessons should be differentiated where possible and CPD has been given to provide ideas as to how this can be done. Children should be supported by only being given part of something to do (break it into smaller steps), having templates available, or working with the class teacher to produce a piece of art that is matched to their ability. The focus of the lesson should be the main skill that is being practised.
INTENT
Our Art Curriculum aims to teach children skills from entry to Dovedale, which they can build on and develop each year that they go through school. This will involve a wide range of materials and artist knowledge, linking it to art movements throughout history. This knowledge will deepen their understanding on time lines when looking at their place in history with what they know already. This has cross-curricular links with history as timelines are a main focus. Materials we use will develop in complexity as the years progress and the children will be able to refer back to their prior learning using their sketchbook which is passed on from year 1 – year 6.
IMPLEMENT
Art is taught with a main focus on skills, which are linked to knowledge blocks where possible. Teachers will have an allocated amount of time for Art and DT per week, which is usually alternated half-termly depending on the knowledge block being covered. There should be an equal amount of time in total across the year designated to each area. There should be 4 key areas of focus when teaching art which are evidenced in the Curriculum map. These are:
Materials and Sculpture
Drawing
Painting and Printing
Art Movements.
These clearly show progression year on year, becoming more complex and building on their previous skills set. Teachers should refer to the curriculum map when planning to ensure they cover all areas. Artists to focus on are provided, however all of the artists in one section do not all need to be covered.
IMPACT
Planning, sketchbooks and online teaching of art has been monitored and fed back to staff during the Art Staff meeting during the Spring term 2021. Evidence of these can be found in the subject monitoring folder and also in the Art Coordinator folder. Planning is gathered from the online planning folder and sketchbooks are collected to check that they correlate with this, as well as be consistent in the expectation and delivery of art. This ensures that both classes across a year group are accessing the same, quality teaching of art.
The new tracking system also enables teachers to monitor where a child is placed within each of the four areas. This ensures that children are consistently challenged as they move throughout the school and ensures that they get the correct support within each art area. Just because a child may be good in sculpture, does not mean that they are good in drawing.
When linking this to pupil voice children are referring back to experiences such as drawing the school building, stop-motion animations and green-screening. This is all vocabulary which would not have necessarily have been used in previous years. Children had missed carrying out art activities like painting and drawing due to COVID teaching and catch up, but when asked what they were looking forward to next year one response was ‘learning about Frida Carlo’, with one wanting to learn how to add more texture to their work and one wanting to do more ‘realistic’ drawings.
When asking staff about their experiences in art many felt confident in painting and printing, where as a majority would like more CPD in drawing. They also wanted ideas as to how they could show differentiation for pupils rather than just support and outcome. A staff meeting was given on this showing differentiation in drawing which staff verbally said was helpful.
When monitoring work this year staff are more confident with their delivery of art and using more technical skills such as lino-printing in year 5. Staff are acting on their feedback from monitoring and continuing to develop the children skills further from what they have learnt so far. Some of the children had to complete polystyrene printing before carrying out lino so that they had not missed any of the process.