Intent

At Lilleshall Primary School, we value Art and Design as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Art and Design provides the children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thought and ideas. Art, craft and design embodies some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality Art and Design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils. This will equip them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. Our curriculum will encourage imagination and creativity; involving children in a range of visual, tactile and sensory experiences, which will enable them to communicate what they see, think and feel through the use of the elements of colour, texture, form and pattern.

The aims of teaching Art and Design at Lilleshall Primary School are:

• To engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.
• As pupils progress through school, they should begin to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
• To produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
• To become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
• To evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
• To know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in art and design, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Teachers and Teaching Assistants have been upskilled through Art and Design training. The co-ordinator also provides opportunities for team teaching when required. Art and Design is taught as part of class-based topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons for their class using The National Curriculum and our progression of knowledge and skills documents. Teachers can use these documents to plan their Art and Design lessons suitable to their class’s interests and what they want to learn. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills and knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.

When teaching Art and Design, teachers may follow the children’s interests to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced. A variety of teaching approaches are used based on the teacher’s judgement. Art and Design provides excellent opportunities to enhance the learning of pupils through investigations, analysing sources and research. The children also learn about famous artists, designers and architects from around the world. Sketch books are used in order to build up a portfolio of individual progression in Art and Design.

Educational visits provide an ideal opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional Art and Design learning outside the classroom. Our children may also explore museums or art galleries and study the history of local buildings and structures in our area. Local craftsmen/women and artists are invited to provide first-hand experiences for pupils through workshops.

Impact

Within Art and Design, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and enquiry-based learning opportunities. Our Art and Design curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discreet vocabulary progression also forms part of the units of work. Children will be become creative learners, who have a knowledge about the great artists and architects of the world. Creativity and uniqueness will be celebrated and children will become astute at editing and improving the pieces they have created. When teaching, there will be an emphasis placed on individuality and children will be given the freedom to explore art using their imaginations. Children will have embedded the key Art and Design skills needed to allow them to produce inventive pieces of art and design.  Their interest in the art, architecture and design will have been stimulated and developed over time.