ART
Curriculum Intent
Why is the subject important?
The world around us is continually changing, requiring people to become increasingly creative with how they live and work to solve problems. Giving children artistic experience within school fuels children’s imagination, and in turn encourages creativity. Teaching art also enables children to explore and make sense of the world around them on both a personal and social level as well as immersing children into many different cultures.
We endeavour to give our pupils quality artistic experiences in school which will develop their skills, knowledge and confidence as an artist. Furthermore, develop their critical thinking skills by exploring, investigating, evaluating, analysing, and finally inventing using a range of art mediums. The transferable skills taught in art will enable children to explore the world around them and express themselves in different ways.
In foundation, children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts and explore a wide range of media and materials. Children develop their understanding of art alongside their ability to express their own ideas, interests and opinions through the art they create. We support children to develop their imaginative and creative skills; alongside their ability to observe and respond to what they see. Our children are provided with opportunities to experiment with colour and design and are supported to share their creations. Our aim is that children have built upon the foundations of their art knowledge and skills in order for this to be built upon in KS1.
Implementation
How do we plan and deliver the units?
At Mosborough Primary School, everyone is an artist! Throughout each year, each unit of art aims to give children a range of learning opportunities which develop both artistic skills and knowledge to enable everyone to become competent, confident artists. Skills are taught progressively from Foundation Stage to Upper Key Stage 2 and look at the main areas of drawing, painting, clay and printing. At Mosborough, we deliver our art curriculum by creating links with our topic work, this could be learning observational drawing through examining a historical artefact, or exploring texture in our animals and habitats topic in science. During the summer term it is used as a main driver to explore and answer ‘a big question’. We end each unit of work with a final piece of art which showcases skills and knowledge the children have learnt.
Art coverage of each year group:
In foundation, all 7 areas of learning are important and interconnected, therefore experiences will occur across many different opportunities offered through our curriculum. Direct adult-teaching is offered as part of our curriculum alongside an enabling environment that provides a wide range of learning experiences. Art links are made through the area of learning ‘Expressive Arts and Design - Creating with Materials’.
Through adult-lead sessions skills such as selecting resources, setting up equipment, using tools effectively and colour-mixing are repeatedly modelled in order to allow children to demonstrate this more independently in the provision. Adults use this opportunity to support children to think about what they want to create and how they can achieve their vision. Adult-led activities focus around drawing, sculpture and painting. Drawing is featured as part of literacy tasks, for example, drawing an item before writing about it.
Our foundation children also experience a wide variety of mark making and fine motor opportunities in order to aid their success in art; these can be seen both indoor and outdoor in our learning environments. Examples over the year include, manipulative activities such as playdough, chalking activities outdoors, large scale painting with water, using natural materials of all sizes and the engagement in ‘Squiggle while you wiggle’ and ‘Squiggle into a writer’.
In the provision, children have regular opportunities to draw and paint independently. Children select their resources from the range on offer, set up their work station and engage in the process independently. Once complete, adults allow children time to talk about their artwork and encourage children to describe what it is and how they achieved it. Our malleable area allows children to develop their skills and strength linked to sculpture. While this is important to fine motor, the tools and techniques that children explore on a regular basis feed into work on sculpture and can be built upon in the following years.
Impact
The impact is to ensure that children are equipped with the artistic skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world. Children will have an increasing understanding of the world around them and be able to express themselves in a range of artistic ways. Children will be able to discuss their own views about pieces of ars and artists and the impression it makes on them. They will also be able to draw inspiration from different artists to create their own unique art. Children will be able to use their art knowledge to draw upon the wider world after learning about a variety of artists and how the artists lives are different.
