Art
Intent
Learning within art and design stimulates creativity and imagination. It provides visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a special way of understanding and responding to the world.
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have” Maya Angelou.
“I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way-things I had no words for” Georgia O’Keefe
At Woodside Junior School, we want our children to have no limits to their creative learning journey. We set their goals to be our future illustrators, graphic designers, fashion designers, curators, architects, artists, or printmakers. Our high-quality and carefully sequenced art and design curriculum aims to inspire, engage and challenge children, therefore, enabling pupils to make connections between what they see, feel and think through the use of colour, texture, form and pattern. It is our intention to develop this natural creativity and desire for self-expression, by providing stimulating and inspiring opportunities across a range of art experiences. Underlying this intention is also our awareness of how this role of artistic expression can enhance one's self-esteem and well-being.
Engaging activities equip the children with the knowledge and skills to develop their art work. Whilst exploring a range of materials, equipment and techniques, our children also learn to follow their curiosity to try new effects and to take risks. Children learn the skills of drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles, sculpture and digital art to develop their range of expression. With a progressive tool-kit of skills, knowledge and understanding, our exciting cross-curricular rich projects stimulate their imagination
As pupils progress through our school, they are able to retrieve, recall and gain a deeper understanding of how art and design reflects and shapes our history and how it contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our world. We wish to equip our children with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the art and design as outlined in the National Curriculum, but to also prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of later life. We want our children to use the local area and our proximity to London, as an inspiration to learn from other cultures and to respect and value diversity. To that end, we have carefully selected a wide range of unique and diverse artists, craft makers and designers for our children to study.
Pupils with specific artistic needs as well as pupils with SEND in a broader sense (where appropriate) are given the confidence, like all our pupils, to be creative and to express themselves. Art tasks are broken down into manageable steps, using clear language and instructions to scaffold the needs of the learner and to foster creative success. More able artists are encouraged to use their own creativity. High quality scaffolded talk prioritises thinking. Extra time is permitted for these pupils to complete their art tasks and those pupils are encouraged and challenged to participate in local and national art competitions.
Our skills progression document ensures that each year pupils are building on their prior knowledge and skills as well as building on their vocabulary and knowledge of artists. Cultural capital is important to us at Woodside, and for this reason we have ensured that our curriculum exposes children to a great many artists from around the world from contemporary society as well as periods in the past.
Implementation
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” Pablo Picasso
The skills and knowledge that Woodside children develop throughout each art topic are mapped across all year groups and have been designed to be progressive, balanced and challenging in line with their year group expectations. Each term, teachers provide the children with the opportunities to explore and extend their skills, knowledge and understanding across drawing, painting, printing, sculpture and digital art - through the exploration of an initial key artist, craft maker or designer with their work. Projects may be blocked across a half term by teachers or built across the term as appropriate. The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the context of their artwork, as well as the artists they are being inspired by and learning from. This enables links to other curriculum areas, including history, geography and science. A similar systematic approach to the development of artistic skills means that children are given opportunities to practice and develop mastery in the key processes of art, drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture.
Each child has an art sketchbook which they use to make initial sketches, develop skills, record ideas and develop opinions. They are evidence of the artistic journey our Woodside children have undertaken and foster a sense of pride and value. Through in-depth discussion, the pupils explore how their art can share commonalties with famous art and develop the use of subject-specific vocabulary to discuss key artworks and their own work. The sketch books provide pupils opportunities to reflect and develop, and opportunities for self and peer assessment are planned into each art project.
Educational visits are an opportunity for teachers to plan for additional art learning outside the classroom, such as visiting the Tate Gallery whilst in year 6. Our children’s winning artwork entries have been exhibited in our local area museums. We enter local and national art competitions, such as the Royal Academy of Arts with success, providing exciting opportunities for our most talented artists. These opportunities also ensure that art is given high status within our school curriculum. Teachers equally ensure that our children’s artwork is displayed and celebrated throughout our school environment
Impact
By the end of our children’s’ time at Woodside School, we want our pupils to have learnt, improved and embedded a wide range of artistic skills. Children will therefore be expected to leave Woodside reaching at least age-related expectations for Art and Design. Our Art and Design curriculum will also lead pupils to be enthusiastic Art and Design learners, evidenced in a range of ways, including pupil voice, their final pieces and the developmental work evident in sketchbooks. Our pupils will be confident to explore and experiment with their art, placing value on the process and the art journey that they have taken. Most importantly, we want children to have found and enjoyed a creative outlet- a means of self-expression and enjoyment to take with them throughout the rest of their lives.