ART 

at Alwoodley Primary School

Implementation and Impact
 

In Art, we want children to be able to comment on the world in which they live in. 

Intent

Art at Alwoodley Primary School is both intellectually challenging and creatively demanding. Here at Alwoodley Primary, we aim to provide an art curriculum which enables each child to reach their full potential learning in art, through investigating and making, through research and the development of skills and through their evaluation of their own art and that made by others. Art enables children to be creative, develop a sense of enjoyment and fulfilment in learning. It fosters a child’s imagination, development of expressive skills and allows them to create their own works of art and design. Through the use of our Golden Threads, Art allows the children to express their thoughts and emotions and enables them to develop good personal, social and emotional development. We believe cognitive education plays an important role in the creative thinking as problem-solving opportunities in our Art lessons equip children with the skills they need in other areas of the curriculum and beyond the classroom. We support children in their learning journey to organise their thoughts, feelings and ideas through sketch book work. A love of reading is supported in Art where children enjoy researching and gathering information about the work of other artists. ‘Reading’ Art work using thinking tools encourages children to look deeper and use inference and prediction skills to gain information about pieces.

• We aim to create 3 art projects per year alongside continual cross curricular sketching throughout the year – 2D, 3D and mixed media.
• We aim to improve and develop vocabulary belonging to all art forms.
• With our thinking tools, we aim to develop children’s ability to analyse and evaluate fine examples of art work from artists belonging to a variety of different cultures and social economic back grounds.
• We aim to develop pupils’ confidence in art, allowing them to access art forms.
• We aim to give pupils the opportunity to show case art.

Implementation

At Alwoodley Primary School, the implementation of art is split between 3 different themes that run throughout the school, Identity & Personal Development, Art and Nature and Places and Spaces. All units have a mixed media approach to exploit the practice of different skills. Each unit of art will have cross curricular links which seek to enrich the curriculum. As an artist, children will have the opportunity to be immersed in a curriculum which offers the progression of skills from EYFS to year 6. It is expected that by year 6, children will have learned a comprehensive set of skills, they will have been exposed to a rich and varied vocabulary in art and will have the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of different media used in art. Children will also have the opportunity to sketch every half term.

Each year group, with the exception of EYFS use sketch books throughout the year. Sketches will be implemented regardless of the unit of study to prepare and plan for their art work. It is a school expectation that the sketch books will be used every term and children are also to use the sketch books when creating hooks for topics in the curriculum such as Science, Geography and History.

Each term, children from Reception up to Year 6, will take part in a whole class sketch monitoring program, which enables staff to monitor progression through school. The sketching monitoring program is also linked to whole school events to support the school’s robust and varied curriculum.

National Curriculum expectations

The National Curriculum for art aims to ensure all pupils:

• Produce creative work, exploring ideas and recording their experiences.
• Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.
• Evaluate and analyse creative works using 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.

Impact

Learners develop their practical and theoretical skills across the Art curriculum and as a result achieve well. They also develop a passion for Art in the engaging and varied curriculum. The artists and artforms studied at Alwoodley are diverse, allowing children to see diversity in art and celebrate the successes of global, often less celebrated artists.

Children in EYFS have the opportunity to experiment with all of the media and techniques, which are developed as children continue their learning journey through school, for example developing their clay sculpting and glazing techniques from EYFS to Year 6.

The profile of Art has been raised through updated prior skills overview, theming, a mixed media approach, emphasis on explicit teaching of new skills, wider use of vocabulary, passion of the head teacher and Art lead.

in house CPD and CPD from professional artists, the new scheme, passion of the head teacher and the arts leader art, the monitoring and assessment of art has raised the profile of art in the school. Art is visible through out school and high-quality art work is displayed to inspire and engage pupils in art.

We have a passion for Art and as a Gold Artsmark School we will always teach this at a high standard at Alwoodley Primary School.

To see our astonishing artists in action, please look at our Twitter page @AlwoodleyPS

If you have any questions regarding the curriculum we teach please contact the school directly.