Art and Design

Art in our school makes a significant contribution to the emotional and creative development of our pupils through capturing and extending the children’s individual interests and encouraging their creative ideas.  Through our curriculum and the wider experiences offered, we provide the children with the knowledge they need to understand key artistic concepts, tools and techniques, along with an enriching experience and critical appreciation of the work of a diverse range of art forms and artists.  We encourage children to be reflective and inspired through studying the works of artists from a range of cultures and contexts.  Through their growing knowledge and practical experiences exploring a variety of media, the children develop their creative and aesthetic understanding and have the confidence to have a go, celebrating their achievements.  Our aim is that they learn from and enjoy their own art experiences, take pride in their art journeys and the work of others.  They see themselves as artists!  

Gorseland’s scheme of work is designed with four strands that run throughout. These are: 

● Generating ideas
● Making skills, including formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour)
● Knowledge of artists
● Evaluating and analysing

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 

● Craft and design

Creativity and independent outcomes are robustly embedded into our units, supporting students in learning how to make their own creative choices and decisions, so that their art outcomes, whilst still being knowledge-rich, are unique to the pupil and personal.

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.

Our curriculum is designed in such a way that children are involved in the evaluation, dialogue and decision making about the quality of their outcomes and the improvements they need to make. By taking part in 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.

After the implementation of Our Art and Design curriculum, pupils should leave Gorseland 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.

The expected impact of our Art and design curriculum is that children will:

• Produce creative work, exploring and recording their ideas and experiences.

• Be proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.

• Evaluate and analyse creative works using subject-specific language.

• Know about great artists and the historical and cultural development of their art.

• Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Art and design.

Teachers make a judgement on the extent to which children have displayed competent art skills and met the intended learning outcome each lesson. This feeds into a termly teacher assessment for each child in line with national curriculum requirements. Verbal feedback is given throughout art lessons to guide children on improving their art skills.

The Art and Design subject leader monitors teaching and learning in their subject through observing teaching and learning in lessons, analysing the work produced by children, talking to samples of children in different year groups about what they know and remember from their learning and termly data analysis to track the progress of learning across the school.