Art @ Hannah More

Intent

At Hannah More Primary School, we aim to provide an Art and Design curriculum that allows for self-expression and creativity, which in turn will build confidence and a sense of individuality. Through art, we encourage critical thinking and believe that art enables children to interpret the world around them. We aim to develop children’s love of art and their ability to evaluate and analyse their own work and the work of others.

Art and design at Hannah More covers a wide range of arts and crafts and allows children to study great artists from around the world to enable children to understand how art both reflects and shapes our history and culture. We hope to engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge, skills and techniques needed to independently experiment, invent and create their own works of art and design proficiently.

Implementation

Art is given a high-profile at Hannah More and is an integrated part of the curriculum. The curriculum offer is based on the National Curriculum for Art and Design and is linked to the enquiries studied each term. In addition, we have an arts week, exploring art from around the world, enabling children to work with a wide range of mediums and developing the language of art. When working creatively, children think of themselves as ‘artists’.

At Hannah More, children will explore art in many forms: sketching, drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, digital media and collage. Care has been taken when planning the curriculum to ensure that children’s experience of art is rich and diverse. To enhance their learning, children study the work of famous local, national and global artists.

The art and design curriculum at Hannah More is progressive, allowing children to build on skills, knowledge and techniques as they go through the school. For instance, collage is taught in KS1, LKS2 and again in UKS2 in a way that builds on prior learning of this media form. At Hannah More, sketchbooks are used with pride. Children use these to analyse the work of great artists and practise their skills and develop and express their ideas. It is here children can work through their ideas, experiment, make mistakes and amend their ideas before creating their final piece. We celebrate children’s creativity around the school and each class has an ‘art gallery’ showcasing their art and design work.

During the EYFS, pupils are encouraged to express themselves and develop their imagination and creativity through a combination of child initiated and adult directed art and design activities.

They have the opportunity to:

• Explore different media such as crayons, pastels, paint, chalk and charcoal on a daily basis
• Express their ideas and individuality using a variety of craft resources
• Develop their fine motor skills and pencil control
• Create models using junk material and clay
• Look at examples of famous artists
• Develop their drawing skills in response to core text

Impact

It is our aim that children will retain knowledge and skills taught within each unit of work, remember these and understand how to use and apply these in their own art work, whilst beginning to understand what being in ‘artist’ means. At Hannah More Primary School, we are able to measure the impact that Art and Design has had for all children by:

• Determining the extent to which objectives are met within each lesson and overall, at the end of each enquiry.
• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
• Images of the children’s practical learning.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).

By the time children leave Hannah More Primary School, we want them to have developed a passion for art and creativity, working both independently and collaboratively. They will have grown in confidence when using a range of tools and techniques, becoming artists that can apply the skills and knowledge that they have developed throughout the years and respond critically to their own and other’s work.

By the end of each Key Stage, all children can apply and understand the skills, knowledge and processes they have been taught so that they are proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft, and design techniques. Most importantly, children will leave Hannah More knowing that it is okay to make mistakes along their journey, they will think for themselves and be critical about their own and other’s work- knowing how they can improve it or knowing when to stop if they are satisfied with their creative work.