At East Hunsbury Primary School, we  intend for our art curriculum to enrich our children’s experience of life aesthetically, culturally and personally. We believe that by appreciating and making art, children learn to express and value their unique voice and viewpoint of the world. This helps pupil’s understand themselves, their place in the world and gives them a sense of wellbeing; thereby helping to unlock their full potential and introducing children to the highest form of creativity.

We intend for our art curriculum to be aspirational, enabling and inclusive as well as:

• ambitious,
• accessible,
• relevant,
• progressive,
• inspirational,
• challenging and
• enjoyable for all our children.

It is our intention that that our curriculum will equip the children with the  knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. We intend that our children will have the opportunity to enjoy Art and Design in its many forms and acquire the skills and technical vocabulary to critique and appreciate a range of Artists from different periods, cultures and  genres.

We intend of 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.

Our Art Curriculum meets the expectations of the National Curriculum as set out below :

During KS1, children will be taught to:

• Use a range of materials creatively to design and make products.
• They will use drawing, painting and ceramics to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination.
• They will study an artist in depth and be taught the language to describe the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines and making links to their own work.
• Children will have the opportunity apply their drawing and painting skills to illustrate a piece of work within the curriculum that has been brought up to presentation standard each term.

During KS2, children will continue to build on, improve and 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.
• Their mastery of art and design techniques in drawing, painting and ceramics.

• They will continue to be taught about and be inspired by the work of artist and craftspeople and will use what they have learnt to inspire and critically inform their own work.
• Children will have the opportunity to apply their drawing and painting skills to illustrate a piece of work within the curriculum that has been brought up to presentation standard each term.

For further information, please refer to the NPAT Art Narrative Document

Our Art Curriculum is made up of Four strands:

1. Mastery in drawing, painting and sculpture (including experience of other additional art forms),
2. Experience of other additional art forms
3. Illustration of work and
4. Development of art appreciation.

The following high dividend-concepts have been identified as part of the art and design curriculum:

• Colour,
• Line,
• Tone,
• Texture,
• Pattern,
• Shape and
• Form 

These strands form the ‘Big Ideas’ through which all art forms will be taught and teachers will make explicit reference to where children have met these concepts before in the curriculum.

Horizontal links will be explicitly made e.g. the mark making that children complete in the art drawing units leads into brush control in the painting units. All paintings will also start with an observational drawing.

 

Vertical links will be made where knowledge and understanding are retrieved and built upon from previous art units e.g. in Year One, the children will be introduced to the concept of tone and making dark and light markings to three tonal values. In Year Two, this advances to four tonal values and by Year Three they will be marking to six tonal values.

Diagonal links will be made, particularly where this is cross-curricular e.g. links to History e.g. in the Year Two drawing unit, the children will draw local landmarks e.g. key buildings which the children will have learnt about in History.

Hierarchical and sequential skills have been carefully woven through the art curriculum.

Early Years

Our Art and Design Curriculum begins in the Early Years, particularly within their learning of Expressive Arts and Design. Children will begin their Art and Design journey in our Early Years by:

• Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paintbrushes and cutlery.
• Safely explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, texture, form and function.
• Share their creations, explaining the process they have used.
• Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing.
• Begin to show accuracy and care when drawing.

Building on from the Early Years

The curriculum builds from the Early Years and is implemented following a sequential process which starts with children learning to observe the world around them by being taught the skills of observational drawing and collating their ideas in a sketchbook, in readiness to be able to present their ideas creatively and proficiently through the medium of drawing, painting and sculpture.

Children are then given the opportunity to apply their drawing and painting skills to illustrate pieces of work throughout the curriculum.

Each year, children will be taught to master skills in drawing, painting and sculpture through a series of lessons which are cumulative in skill progression and are taught in the first, third and fifth term. The mediums for Sculpture alternate yearly between ceramics and recycled materials. Children experience and explore other media, such as: printmaking, photography and textiles through opportunities in other areas of the curriculum e.g. DT or computing. Similarly, the skills taught through art are also linked to other areas of the curriculum, e.g., in History, the drawing historical buildings.

The NPAT trust has a unique and enduring partnership with the National Gallery and participates in the annual ‘Take One Picture’ project. This is a national project focussing on one painting from the National Gallery and is open to all schools. Through our partnership, all Year 4 teachers have training with artists and curators from the National Gallery about the history of the featured painting and artist and techniques that could be used to engage and inspire the children. All children will have the opportunity to visit the National Gallery in Year 4 to further enhance their knowledge and understanding of the work of artists at first hand.

During their time in school, the children across the other year groups, will also explore prominent artworks and artists within the National Gallery collection. To deepen their understanding, they will compare, and contrast artworks created at different times and in different cultures, using different techniques and influences.

The children’s work, in response to the ‘TOP’ project, is exhibited alongside other NPAT schools, which is open to schools, parents and pupils to view. The work is then reviewed by the National Gallery in the prospect that it may be chosen for their School’s Exhibition.

As part of our creative project linked with the RSC, children in Year 5 get the opportunity to work with an artist in residence to create a high quality piece of art to ignite their passion for drama and dance.

For further information about our art curriculum, please refer to the NPAT Aims and Principles documents and the Art Narrative.

The impact of our Art Curriculum is assessed through a multi-faceted approach:

• Pupil voice
• Pupil learning conversations
• Work in sketchbooks
• Work created and displayed around the school and through exhibitions and community events.