Intent

Our Art curriculum plays a vital part in children’s education and enrichment activities throughout all key stages. The art curriculum is split into four essential areas of drawing, painting, printing and making with materials. The essential areas ensure that all visual elements of art and design are taught (line, tone, shape, form, texture, pattern and 3D).  

 These four areas are specifically taught using key artists to ensure progression of knowledge and skills. To encourage a critical understanding of the world around them and a variety of cultures to embed this, artists are selected from a wide range of gender, heritage and diversity.

Implementation
The skills and knowledge that children develop throughout our Art curriculum are mapped across
each Key Stage and are progressive throughout the key stages. The emphasis on a variety of artists
ensures the children have specific knowledge and understanding of the contexts of the artwork they
are learning about. They are inspired by the artists to create individual artworks using a broad depth
of skill and materials. This rich art curriculum allows links across other curriculum areas in school
such as Humanities and current cultural issues. Developing children’s creative skills and thinking
means they are given opportunities to express their artistic imagination, as well as mastering the key
areas of art: drawing, painting, printing and making with materials. This progressive curriculum
ensures that earlier learning is recapped and linked to current learning and skills. Key vocabulary is
taught and developed throughout school, this gives children meaning to subject specific techniques
and words but also enables them to discuss artists work, their artworks and their peers. Using earlier
learning acts as a pinpoint for teachers to access the children’s knowledge before new learning is
taught and use formative assessment to inform any new learning.
Art has a high value in school and whole school projects and opportunities ensure this high status.
The school’s high-quality curriculum is supported by a variety and diversity of artists selected to
study, a wide range of quality materials for children to use and quality teaching and experiences
given to the children. These include school trips to art galleries, museum’s and visiting artists. We
believe that seeing art first hand is an important part of our rich curriculum.

Impact

The structure of the art curriculum ensures that children are able to develop their knowledge and understanding of the work of artists, craftspeople from a range of times and cultures and apply this knowledge to their own artworks. The consistent use of sketchbooks shows progression, the growth of the children’s individual artistic style and high-quality artworks. These sketchbooks emphasise the children’s opinions of art and individual choices.

Children are able to make definitive choices about their artworks, evaluate, refine and develop their skills. This enriched art curriculums supports children in achieving age related expectations at the end of each year.

The school environment celebrates creativity and Art and this can be seen in classroom displays, whole school areas and outside collaborative projects with other arts and culture organisations. The Art curriculum at Sparken Hill contributes to children’s personal development, how they see the world around them, their creativity, independence and self- reflection.