Intent 

At Buckshaw Primary School, we provide high quality art education that is inclusive to every child. Our aim is to ensure that Art and Design engages, inspires and fosters pupils’ interest and enjoyment in art. We ensure that our Art curriculum enables pupils to express their own creativity, giving them the knowledge and skills to experiment, explore and analyse works of art, using vocabulary specific to art and design, to create their own works of art. We believe that by developing this, we can contribute to the quality of our children’s lives by providing them with the opportunities to express their thoughts, feelings and emotions as a visual response to their understanding of the world around them. 

As pupils progress through each year, they will develop their substantive knowledge of art forms, building on techniques of drawing, painting and sculpture. This knowledge will also be underpinned with the study of famous artists as well as links to history and culture to develop their understanding of art forms through the ages whilst developing their cultural capital. Built into each unit is also a development of disciplinary and procedural knowledge, where children will build on art theory, techniques and media and materials to compare art forms from prior learning.

At Buckshaw, we believe that Art and Design contributes to our school’s values of respect, independence and determination. Every opportunity promotes confidence and resilience in risk-taking and decision-making and provides children with skills that can be applied across the curriculum.

Implementation

At Buckshaw Primary School, the teaching and implementation of Art and Design has been developed using the principles from the Learning Challenge Curriculum, which meets the requirements of the National Curriculum. The Learning Challenge concept ensures greater child involvement in their work.  It requires deep thinking and encourages children to make links to previous learning, conduct their own research on a specific artist and the genre. The teaching of Art and Design is delivered through a         skills-based approach, with emphasis on developing pupils’ skills and understanding each year, to ensure that we implement a progressive curriculum throughout school. Art and Design is carefully planned to ensure that pupils’ prior learning is considered and knowledge and skills are developed as pupils move through school. Children will be immersed in opportunities where they are able to explore their ideas and record their experiences, in addition to exploring the work of others and evaluate different creative ideas. Children will become confident and proficient in a variety of techniques including drawing, painting and sculpting, to ensure all pupils produce creative, imaginative work, 

In the Foundation Stage, Art and Design is outlined in the Development Matters under Expressive Arts and Design. Children have access to a range of media and materials in continuous provision. Within the indoor and outdoor environment, children are provided with the opportunity to experience a combination of adult-led and child-initiated learning experiences, independently and with adult support. A focus artist is included in each terms planning, from which children produce artwork reflecting the style of the artist. Children are given the opportunity to experiment with colour, design, texture, form and function and use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways. They are also encouraged to represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role play and stories.

Key Stage One and Two pupils are taught art weekly, every other half-term, alternating with DT. We focus on one strand each half-term:  drawing, painting and sculpture, in order to ensure progression and skills development. In KS1, pupils are exposed to a range of materials and taught to use them creatively to design and make products. Children are taught to develop a wide range of art and design techniques using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space. As well as this, pupils use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas and experiences about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.

In KS2, pupils build on learning from KS1, so that they are able to develop techniques, control and use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design. Pupils use sketch books to record their research and observations and use them to review and revisit ideas. Skills and techniques that are developed in KS1 are further improved within art and design, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials. In KS2, pupils learn about great artists, architects and designers in history in line with the skills that they are learning to develop. As well as current artists and artists throughout history, pupils will learn about artists that are local to the area. Pupils experience visits from different artists to engage them and extend their experience of art and design. 

Impact

Formative assessment is used to support teaching and learning and inform future planning. The class teacher will also assess the children's progress in Art based on their achievement of the learning objectives in lessons. At the end of each academic year, children will meet age-related expectations if they have gained the expected knowledge, understanding and skills.

In the Foundation Stage, children’s artwork is included in Learning Journeys and recorded through observation. Coverage of skills is monitored across all key stages through highlighting skills that have been covered in each class. A record of this is kept by the subject leader. 

The monitoring of Art and Design is the responsibility of the subject leader. This is carried out through pupil conferencing and pupil voice questionnaires, classroom observations, discussions with class teachers around the teaching and assessment of art and monitoring achievement.