Our Art vision is to creatively explore ideas through experimentation.

Intent, Implementation and Impact in Art and design.

Intent

Our intent is that the golden threads of Alwoodley are woven through the Art curriculum. We want to inspire and challenge children, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to participate in, experiment with, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.

Golden thread one – We believe creative thinking and 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.  

Golden thread two – 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.

Golden thread three – We want children to be inspired by a diverse range of artists, crafts people and designers and recognise the importance of Art in different cultures that are represented in our school.

We want children to be able to express themselves through different media and feel empowered to think creatively. We intend to make all learning meaningful and memorable.
 

Implementation

Our curriculum offers children frequent opportunities to develop their practical skills using a wide range of media at their own pace. We know that progression is not linear so all work is valued and recorded and not marked. However, to encourage children’s progress and creativity, we observe children while they work and capture moments where they evaluate effectively, use the language of art and design, collaborate well and make creative decisions. Our progression map follows the national curriculum objectives to ensure children build on prior knowledge.  

In each unit of work the children draw and create using a range of media, whilst exploring the work of an artist, crafts person, or designer. We expect final pieces to all be different as they will reflect each individual’s learning journey. Children are encouraged to move their learning forward by reflecting on their own work. Self-evaluation is taught throughout each unit and is supported by peer and teacher led critiques.  

Each lesson starts with a drawing warm up where children revisit and build on skills linked to line, tone, pattern, space, form, colour, texture and shape. Jumpstarts are in place to remind children of their learning so far and address any misconceptions. Super six are designed to help children retain important sticky knowledge about artists, materials and skills.

By revisiting different mediums and techniques throughout their school life, children will have the skills and confidence to express themselves and produce work they enjoy making and can be proud of.

'This world is but a canvas to our imagination.'

Henry David Thoreau

'A picture is worth a thousand words.'

Napoleon Bonaparte

Impact

We use a range of strategies to assess what skills and knowledge the children have attained each term including the following:

• Book looks
• Use of super six 
• Pupil Voice 
• Regular feedback each lesson

To see our astonishing Art, please look at our Twitter page @AlwoodleyPS