Intent

At St Michael's C of E School, we want every child to be happy and enthusiastic learners of Art and Design and to be eager to achieve their very best in order to fulfil their given talents.  The intent of our Art education is to appreciate and enjoy art and to learn how it enriches our lives, making personal connections with the world in which we all live including diversity and equality. Art and Design can also be an important way to support the mental health of pupils.

We value Art and Design as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. It is our vision that Art and Design provides the children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and techniques by propelling their imaginations through vital means of personal expression. Art is a practical subject, but one that allows moments for respectful reflection and response as a critical thinker to their own and others work, encouraging them to use artistic language in discussions. 

We strive to use our high-quality curriculum to inspire, engage and challenge children, whilst allowing them to experiment and invent their own works of art, craft and designs. The Kapow Art and Design curriculum incorporates progression of skills appropriate to the age development of the children. The links to the EYFS/KS1 and KS2 curriculum are evident in each unit and lesson.

St Michael’s encourages creativity from the very beginning of children’s schooling experience. This is done through Expressive Arts and Design in EYFS. The EYFS has a child-initiated approach which allows EAD to flourish throughout the different areas in the room. Distinct links are made across the EYFS curriculum using Kapow Primary curriculum units of work.

Implementation

Throughout their time at St Michael’s, the children are given a range of opportunities to explore a wide variety of materials and techniques, developing their skills and thinking as young artists.  The curriculum is progressive, so allows the children to build on skills, knowledge and techniques year on year.  

Various media types are explored to give the widest possible range of experiences for all children. Developing skills in drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles 3D work and digital art. The materials and media used are revisited throughout units and year groups to ensure progression of skills previously developed. Children have access to key knowledge, language, and meanings to understand and readily apply new terminology to their work in Art and across the wider curriculum. 

Children study a range of works by famous artists and art is displayed to motivate and inspire others and to celebrate the pupil's art work across our school environment and in our wider community. 

The Kapow Art revised scheme of work is designed with five strands that run throughout. These are:

·         Generating ideas

·         Using sketchbooks

·         Making skills, including formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour)

·         Knowledge of artists

·         Evaluating and analysing

Units of lessons are sequential, allowing children to build their skills and knowledge, applying them to a range of outcomes. The formal elements, a key part of the National Curriculum, are also woven throughout units. Key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Units in each year group are organised into four core areas:

·         Drawing

·         Painting and mixed media

·         Sculpture and 3D

·         Craft and design 

Impact 

By the end of their time with us, we want pupils to have learned, improved and embedded a range of artistic skills. They should have an awareness of a broad range of artists and craftspeople and be able to consider and discuss the artworks they come across. We want our pupils to be confident to explore, experiment and take risks, placing value on the process and journey that they take, not just on the finished product. They should be able to evaluate and analyse creative works using artistic language. Most importantly, we want children to have found and enjoyed a creative outlet – a means of self-expression and enjoyment.  

The following methods are used to assess the impact of our Art and Design curriculum:

·         Assessing children’s understanding of topic-linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught

·         Summative assessment of pupil through discussions about their learning

·         Images and embedded practice of sharing their work across our school community

·         Interviewing the pupils about their learning through pupil voice