Art and Design
Intent
To support our whole school curriculum intent in Art and Design, we aim to provide children with a high quality, inclusive art curriculum which develops creativity, sets challenges, engages and inspires children and equips them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. This approach intends to foster the children’s resilience and commitment. In addition, our carefully planned progression of art skills enables the children to build on prior knowledge and experiences and develop their self confidence and independence.
Many of our art units require our pupils to use reference material which can be drawn from the works of famous and local artists, craftspeople and designers from the past and present and a variety of cultures. Through experiencing and exploring such works and having contextual discussions, our pupils begin to develop tolerance and understanding of different cultures and lifestyles.
At Charles Saer Community Primary School we recognise the value of first hand experiences and as such, we endeavour to provide the children with opportunities to engage with local artists and artisans; in addition to visiting exhibitions during their time with us. Through participating in local art exhibitions and hosting our own, as well as displaying examples of pupil’s artwork in prominent places around our school environment, we model a sense of pride in self, school and community which filters down into our pupils.
We want our children to have a broad vocabulary and we work hard to narrow the vocabulary gap. The language of art is taught, revisited and built upon as the children progress through school. In every classroom, art specific words are introduced and displayed, linked to their current art unit. The vocabulary is used throughout art lessons to help children to develop and cement contextual understanding. As they progress through school, pupils are expected to use art terminology to discuss reference material and evaluate their own and other’s work.
Implementation
At Charles Saer Community Primary School, we have developed a cross curricular approach to our curriculum, using selected and adapted lessons from ‘Curriculum Maestro’ units over a two-year cycle.
Through this, Art and Design is taught either as a cross-curricular link or as a focus topic, following the National Curriculum (2014) programmes of study. Art is taught over three half terms each year with at about 8 hours study, dedicated to each unit. An artist, designer or craft maker is studied as part of each unit. 
At Charles Saer, our focus areas in art are painting, drawing, printing and sculpture (specifically clay work). This enables the children to hone their skills at each key phase of the school. In addition, pupils study collage in key stage 1, textiles in lower key stage 2 and digital media in upper key stage 2. They are given other opportunities to explore these areas at other points in their education but these are in addition to the curriculum such as to support topic work or in extra-curricular activities. Children also gain opportunities to further their skills in digital art and textiles during ICT lessons and Design and technology as many of the skills are transferable.
Children experience an art week in the summer term where they are given the opportunity to further explore their chosen media from the year’s study. This open-ended approach enables the children to develop a sense of ownership over their learning and develop as an artist.
Curriculum Map
We have developed a creative approach to our curriculum using “Maestro” units over a two-year cycle. Through this, art and design is delivered either as a focus for a unit or as cross-curricular linked activities, following the National Curriculum programmes of study. Art is studied over three half terms throughout the year.
The children are given the opportunity to focus on developing their skills in drawing, painting and working with clay during their time at Charles Saer. They study one additional media in each two year cycle.
Primary National Curriculum Art and Design link below:
