Art
Art
At Market Drayton Junior School, we are committed to providing our children with an Art & Design curriculum that is creative, reflective and impacts positively upon the children’s needs.
Intent - How have we designed our art curriculum?
As we are aware from our feeder school, Market Drayton Infant & Nursery School, the children arrive in school with very varied backgrounds, in terms of experiences, some with a degree of speech, language and communication difficulty, therefore vocabulary development is important to us. Just under a third of our children have been identified as disadvantaged and one in five children are on the SEN register, requiring additional support with their learning to differing degrees.
We want a curriculum which is aspirational, engaging and ultimately bespoke to meet the needs of the children in our care. As well as a curriculum which is evolving and reacting to the needs of our society.
This is all underpinned by our vision ‘Passion for Learning, Skills for Life’.
Our values are:
- Collaboration: 'We work together to support and nurture everyone to achieve their aims'
- Aspirations: 'We encourage each other to aim high and achieve their aspirations’
- Respect: ‘We are honest, thoughtful and considerate to ourselves, others and the world around us'
- Positivity: 'We adopt a 'can do' and optimistic attitude'
These values underpin everything that we do in order to achieve excellence.
At Market Drayton Junior School, we recognise that Art & Design touches every part of our daily lives and as such we give the teaching and learning of Art the prominence that it deserves.
Teaching Art & Design at our school aims to open our children’s eyes and minds to the world around them whilst practising skills and techniques to help them think creatively, to gain an understanding of specific processes and also to understand the impact and inspirations of artists in our past, today, and for the future.
As artists, we want children to:
Implementation – How do we deliver the art curriculum?
Our Art Curriculum design is based on Chris Quigley Essentials Curriculum. This covers the national curriculum, with space for a local curriculum offer and helps to structure the curriculum across the primary phase.
Underpinned by the vision and values, our art curriculum sets out a clear breadth of what will be covered:
| AUTUMN | SPRING | SUMMER |
Y 3 |
Designing Celtic shields
Mosaics linked to Romans
Pencil control, sketching techniques Artefact sketching Clay oil lamps |
Landscapes and rivers – watercolours Georges Seurat – Pointillism Pencil control, sketching techniques
|
Pattern making - printing French patterns Designing wallpaper Researching
|
Y 4 |
Rainforest compositions, using sketchbooks, colour wash Artists: Summer Hues / Henri Rousseau
| Collaborative focus linked to the residential visit.
Egyptian focus Shape and stick materials. Egyptian hieroglyphics. Cross stitch and back stitch. | Drawing – line, tone and texture. Shading for light /shadow. Hatching and cross-hatching for tone and texture. Explorers / Darwin focus.
|
Y 5 |
Collage - multi-media Observational sketches of artefacts Tones, shapes, lines Greek clay pots
|
Still life mixed media (Picasso) Pop art based on real life heroes (Andy Warhol) | Drawing from different perspectives Landscapes linked to mountains and volcanoes Painting |
Y 6 |
Colourwash World War One silhouettes Landscapes – images of World War One
| Mayan art - painting and wire work linked with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo
| Sculpture Europe Link Landmarks - sketches / acetate |
Progression
Progression and structure through the art curriculum is supported by a ‘threshold concepts’. The ‘threshold concepts’ are what pupils should understand and underpin the breadth of study. These include:
- Developing ideas
- Mastering techniques
- Take inspiration from the greats
The children return to each concept again and again through each area in the curriculum breadth. This helps the children develop as artists and designers, and secures the concept development into long term memory and allows for progression. This increases their knowledge of the areas of Art over time.
Links to other subjects
Where appropriate the teaching of our Art & Design is linked to other curriculum areas. Here are some of the ways we link art to other subjects:
Subject | How art may be linked |
Science | Drawing can be used to make predictions, make observations and record findings, within plant growth, life cycles and sight.
|
Geography | Using a countries culture and geographical features to inspire paintings and collage, drawings used to illustrate concepts like tectonic plate movements, watercolours rivers and landscapes with use of perspective, collaborative focus on residential trip, landmarks used to inspire 3D work.
|
Maths | 2D and 3D shapes |
Design Technology | Designing pillows based on WW1 theme, designing shelters to a specific brief. |
Music | Drawing what we interpret from listening to music.
|
History | Observational drawing using the range of artefacts we have within school, designing Celtic shields and Roman mosaics, wire portraits inspired by Mayan / Mexican artists and wildlife. |
Modern Foreign Languages | Pattern making inspired by tradition French interior pattern designs. |
Special Education Needs in Art & Design
Although a child may have been identified as having a special educational need, they may not have a special educational need in art. Within Art & Design, we aspire to create inspiring, explorative lessons linked to engaging topics across the curriculum. We strive to maintain an inclusive learning environment, working with additional adults and using multi-sensory approaches, including the use of technology, to explore and create, allowing pupils to express ideas and develop them.
When planning, we take into account pupils’ needs and celebrating individual expression, promoting positive attitudes. We set suitable learning challenges to overcome potential barriers to learning and assessment and modify the curriculum to remove barriers so all pupils meet the same objectives.
Throughout a sequence of lessons, we continue to develop adult-pupil communication to motivate, question, challenge and assess all children. The revisiting of techniques and processes helps to build skills and consolidate these to long term memory for our children’s progression into Key Stage 3. From an early age, we encourage our children to reflect on their own and others’ work, encouraging the use of specific terminology.
Art Beyond the Classroom
To raise children’s aspirations as artists, we always look for opportunities beyond the classroom.
This includes our annual community calendar competition and annual journal design competition. We have been fortunate to have local artists and practitioners visiting the school to demonstrate to the children the creative career opportunities which are possible, further endorsing the notion that Art & Design is an important part of our curriculum and holds a vital part in our wider lives and industry.
Art & Design clubs have been organised for children of all ages and abilities by teaching staff, to extend the children’s awareness of photography and animation.
We regularly enter local and national competitions with success, for example, John Lewis, Button & Bear and Bookfest. We also work alongside local housing company David Wilson Homes to produce artwork for their stationary and decorations.
Art Beyond the Classroom
Impact
Art has a high profile within school. This ranges from displays to showcase the work which has been achieved within the subject.
Children develop each concept over time and it takes a two-year period to get to a deeper level of understanding at the appropriate age. For example, in years three and five, children will have a basic understanding of art at an age appropriate level, but by revisiting this they should have a deeper level of understanding and have developed their skills by years four and six. Progression in their work as artists is shown in their sketch books.
Through the explicit teaching of skills in art, both the teachers and the pupils assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. Teacher judgements are based upon a triangulation of work across sketchbooks, final pieces and teacher observation of the children’s work within the classroom.
To conclude, the impact and measures of the above are to ensure that the children not only acquire the appropriate age related knowledge linked to the Art & Design curriculum, but also to embrace and nurture a love of Art which has been fostered within school, to encourage a strong sense of creativity, reflection and exploration within the children for today and as they continue through their academic journey and potential future job prospects.