Art and Design

Our curriculum is ambitious, diverse and research driven

INTENT

At Hunsbury Park Primary School, we recognise the importance of art in our world. Our Art and Design curriculum is aspirational, knowledge-rich, diverse, inclusive and supports our children to appreciate the world they live in.

Through the teaching and learning of Art and Design at Hunsbury Park Primary School, we want our children to be creative and engaged with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works in order to become more proficient in the use of a wide range of media. These skills are central to the development of young artists. As pupils progress through school, they should begin to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. We want children to know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and society of our diverse country. We intend our curriculum to teach the children to think critically about great artists, craft makers and designers and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms and how they impact on our lives today.

The intent for our curriculum is to enable every child to develop their creativity and inspire their imaginations for lifelong learning and gain high quality experiences in Art to build cultural capital and the practical skills that accompany Art and Design.

IMPLEMENTATION

At Hunsbury Park Primary School, we base our teaching and learning of Art and Design through a spiral curriculum where children revisit knowledge and skills covered throughout their time with us. We set foundations in the Early Years and allow the children to progress and develop by then building on these skills throughout each year. Baselines are assessed and children then learn through exploration and experience in Art where learning and knowledge is continually retrieved for greater understanding and for further learning to take place. Art topics have been personally created and tailored to ensure children within Hunsbury Park Primary School have the opportunities to be fully exposed to and experience all skills and learning outlined within the National Curriculum. We also take into consideration the cultural capital of our children and explicitly plan for the skills and learning they will need to move further in their Art education. This is achieved through mixed year groups running over two-year cycles which show rigorously planned retrieval, expectations and progression through each year group and phase created by the expertise of the Subject and Curriculum Lead. This promotes a highly consistent way of teaching and supports all practitioners in delivering Art to the highest standard. This approach also enables our children to develop their artistic skills from physical skills such as painting, drawing, sculpture and collage, to evaluation and the study of significant artists including the greats, as well as local artists.

By creating our own overviews, we have tailored learning for our children further. This heavily supports their learning, knowledge and skills and also allows us to interlink key concepts within significant areas in Art. In addition to this, we can ensure that subject-specific vocabulary is well-taught and revisited throughout the units.

The Art curriculum map shows the progression of skills in which the children will learn throughout their time at Hunsbury Park Primary School. Each skill is targeted and developed throughout each year and this is supported through our ‘End Points’ progression maps. The art skills, artists, materials and vocabulary chosen have been carefully selected to ensure that every phase has a full experience of Art that is rich, well taught and covers all of the objectives set out in the National Curriculum.

By carefully tailoring the children’s topics, this ensures that no topic is repeated again throughout their learning journey, and they are truly progressing on their skills and knowledge year on year; learning is retrieved and built upon. Children’s work is documented in their sketchbooks which follow them throughout each phase. This ensures that children have an opportunity to revisit their prior learning from previous years and terms and retrieve this as well as view their own progression.

Teachers have clear and concise planning from high quality and detailed overviews, which guarantees high quality teaching and learning with explicit end points, expectations and skills.

We base our teaching and learning of Art by focusing on 3 Key Concepts across the school in all phases.

Our Key Concepts that drive our approach to Art are:

Develop Ideas – I am an artist because I use my ideas to express my thoughts, feelings and ideas.
Master Techniques – I am an artist because I explore a range of techniques, tools, materials and mediums, evaluating and developing my artistic skills.
Take Inspiration from the Greats – I am an artist because I am inspired by great artists, creative works and genres from different places and times.

These key concepts are introduced in early KS1 and are reviewed throughout each 2-year cycle across all phases in Art. Within these key concepts, which are broad areas we target our teaching of Art through our Hunsbury Park Primary School focused lenses which specify an area within each key concept depending on the content or skill being taught. These are revisited, built upon and strengthened throughout each year so that skills are taught and can be applied and embedded and learning is fully consolidated.

Our Lenses for each Key Concept are:

Develop Ideas
- Expression

Master Techniques
- Media and Materials
- Use of Colour
- Artistic Techniques

Take Inspiration from the Greats
- Artists and Designers
- Styles and Periods

Objectives are made clear to all staff in many ways across Hunsbury Park Primary School. Staff are expected to know and understand their Art curriculum map and know how to use the written overviews provided to them to create MTPs. Support is given to all staff if they need additional guidance in following these; however, they have been written in great detail to make the teaching of Art clear and succinct across all classes within the same phase and then across the school. Staff also use our Hunsbury Park Primary School progression end points to aid planning, delivery of Art and assessment of the children beginning at their starting points in the initial stages of each topic. This is then matched where appropriate to the lessons taught throughout each topic.

Curriculum forecasts are readily available on the school website for parents to read to gain a good insight into what and how the children are being taught Art. These are also posted on Class Dojo. All documents are also available on the Art Padlet for staff to access.

Staff undertake ongoing CPD through the subject lead who attends training or where support is needed in school for different skills being taught. This is shared as emails, in person on a 1:1 basis or in staff meetings if appropriate. There are also many shared planning opportunities to make the teaching and learning of Art as clear and high quality as possible.

There are many Art resources across school as well as general supplies in phase areas.

IMPACT

Teachers track how well the children are learning the content by reviewing and providing feedback during and after each lesson, verbally or written. Formative and summative assessments are used so teachers are then able to steer teaching in subsequent lessons/unit or target children who need further support or extending. Through the use of summative assessment, final pieces provide a great deal of information to gauge how well the child has progressed in that particular area of Art. Pupil voice also provides a clear view of what the children have taken from their Art units and how well they have engaged with them as well as if they can retrieve previous learning from topics. Another method of making this judgment is through learning walks, planning and sketchbook scrutinies across all classes and phases to identify successes and where phases or members of staff need support.

Children are prepared for the next stages of education well, as objectives have been cross referenced with Art and Design aims for KS3 and KS4. This ensures that the content covered in KS1 and KS2 is a solid foundation for future lessons. Our end points also provide a clear and easy to follow guidance to where the children should have already been on their learning journey and where we will need to get them to as teachers in the next stage of their education. Work in sketchbooks show that objectives are being taught well and that pupils are applying their skills and knowledge to tasks independently.

SEND AND DISADVANTAGED PUPILS

Art and Design forms part of the school’s curriculum policy that provides a broad and balanced education for all pupils, whatever their ability and individual need. Staff strive to meet the needs of all pupils with special educational needs, disabilities, special gifts and talents, and of those learning English as an additional language. The curriculum enables all pupils to have access to the full range of activities while studying Art and Design.

We provide planning support through consulting children wherever possible, about the type and level of support they require. Children have access to specific and generic aids in order for them to complete tasks. Children who have sensory needs or are averse to handling certain materials (such as clay or chalk) are provided with plastic gloves in order for them to feel comfortable in taking part. Support from additional adults is planned to scaffold children’s learning, allowing them, increasingly, to work independently. When appropriate, all tasks are differentiated by outcome, support and by the small steps taken to reach the end goal or towards mastering a skill.

How Does Art and Design Promote British Values?

Art lessons provide an opportunity for pupils to engage in making art and at the same time reinforcing the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs in an exciting and visual way.

Examples include the portraiture work Phase 1 engage upon when exploring their topic relating to the Monarchy. Their Portraits of the Queen Elizabeth II and King Henry VIII are used as a means to teach about British democracy, the history of our democracy and links to the past. This unit also links to the teaching about the rule of law and how laws are made. In Phase 3, children study the life and artwork of several significant black artists, those being predominately female. The children explore how their artwork allowed them to express their freedom of speech and in turn, reinforces the British value of individual liberty as well as tolerance by learning how to respect different viewpoints and diversity within our society.

As well as the art links with RE and the opportunities to create artwork therein, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs can be seen linked to the Phase 2 topic of mosaics. Here the children are not only understanding the process behind creating mosaics but study traditional mosaics illustrating poignant symbolic messages or religious scenes.