At Loddiswell Primary School we recognise that Art, Craft and Design is essential to a rich and balanced education that develops the whole child. It provides a distinctive means for children to look at, respond to, and express ideas about themselves and the world around them, and we value their role in the development and understanding of creativity, expression of self and their contribution to the wider civilisation around us.

In our teaching of Art, Craft and Design, we recognise the importance of learning the unique sets of skill, as well as their integral place in our history and culture. We aim to develop children’s skills through the process of generating ideas, making and evaluating art pieces whilst supporting this with a knowledge and understanding of artists, crafts people and designs, materials, tools and techniques.

We believe that this will prepare them to not only continue their study of Art, Craft and Design into Key Stage 3, but provide the foundation stones so that children may have a lifetime of participation, appreciation and enjoyment of the Arts, which are also used to gain a greater depth of understanding in other areas of our curriculum.

 Which curriculum will we use?

The National Curriculum provides the structure and skill development for the Art, Craft and Design curriculum being taught throughout the school.  We base our units on the art disciplines of drawing, painting, print-making, sculpture and mixed-media collage, and include areas of digital art in these units. In order to give our units a context and enhance learning across the curriculum, we endeavour to promote links with other subjects particularly through History and Geography.  Art, Craft and Design is very much integrated into our curriculum as a means for children to gain and express understanding in English, P.S.H.E., R.E. and Science. In Early Years, children develop their fine motor skills to hold and control tools and materials, for example – pencils, paintbrushes and scissors. They explore these through independent and adult-led activities considering shape, line, texture, pattern and colour.

Which knowledge and skills will we teach?

At Loddiswell Primary School we aim to provide all children with the opportunity to:

• Develop Art, Craft and Design knowledge and conceptual understanding through the disciplines of drawing, painting, print-making, sculpture and mixed-media collage, and digital art.
• Develop a progressive range of skills and foster creativity through the process objectives – generating ideas, making and evaluating.
• Develop an understanding of the art elements -line and mark-making, shape, form, colour, tone, texture and pattern through exploration with materials and studying the work of others.
• Develop the children’s ability to investigate and understand the world around them through exploring the Art, Craft and Design in different time periods, cultures and areas of the curriculum.
• Foster an appreciation and enjoyment of Art, Craft and Design.
• Collaborate and celebrate Art, Craft and Design in our school community.
• Develop vocabulary, so the children are able to communicate their experiences and ideas, and evaluate their own and others work.

Feel inspired by and learn from the skills and passions of local artists, crafts people and designers.

Implementation

How is Art, Craft and Design planned?

Art, Craft and Design provision is allocated three units of teaching time each year. Each year follows a long-term plan which sets out the art disciplines that need to be taught in order to ensure the breadth of  the Art, Craft and Design curriculum is being taught along with skill progression.

There are guide plans for each unit which detail the skills that need to be taught and offer suggestions of artists. Teachers use these to create their own plans by making links between subjects or take inspiration from an overall topic for learning

How is Art, Craft and Design taught?

At Loddiswell Primary School, children will be taught a unit of art each half-term. The unit will consist of 5 to 6 lessons which are usually taught once a week, however, there is flexibility for teachers to block lessons together to allow for exploration with materials and final makes. This allows for greater focus on learning as the time for setting up tools and materials is reduced.

Each unit follows a similar process –

• Learn about, evaluate and/or research an artist.
• Experiment with materials and develop a skill by replicating the work of an artist.
• Develop own ideas based on work of artist in a given context.
• Create an art piece.
• Evaluate art piece.
• Display and celebrate art pieces.

Sketchbooks are used throughout the process as each lesson builds on ideas from the previous. The children are encouraged to take ownership of their sketchbooks by exploring their own ideas through working with materials and making annotations.

In Early Years, Art, Craft and Design learning is particularly developed through the learning areas: ‘Physical Development’ and ‘Expressive Arts and Design’, however, it is appreciated as a tool to express and gain understanding across the seven areas, particularly as a means to communicate ideas in writing composition.

What do Art, Craft and Design lessons look like?

Each lesson will begin with a retrieval task to:

• Access the children’s prior learning within an art discipline such as the tools and materials used.
• Describe an art piece to develop children’s understanding and vocabulary with the art elements.
• Discuss their knowledge about an artist including their style, art movement and make comparisons.

The teacher will link this to new learning using the National curriculum objectives.

Observation and discussion are used to allow children to explore the art elements and consider the use of materials in their own and others art pieces. Children are encouraged to make personal observations and describe their opinions. The teacher will aid children by introducing both new artists through information about their work and life and art skills. Children will use new knowledge and their own reflections to evaluate pieces. They will record evaluations in their sketchbooks using key vocabulary.

Teachers will modal the use of materials and tools by explaining each step of the process clearly, and children will have the opportunity to practice the skill themselves in their sketchbooks. The children will be encouraged to apply the skills in different contexts and to think of their own ideas to develop a final art piece. Throughout this process, the children will be encouraged to reflect and evaluate their own and others work. This will allow them to consider the effective use of materials and develop their ideas.

The journey of the artistic process will be recorded and celebrated within the classroom through examples of work and photographs on the Art Working Wall.

This work will accumulate in a final piece which may take a few sessions. A photograph of the piece will be put in the children’s sketchbook along with an evaluation. The art piece will be displayed in the classroom or around the school, and photographs will be shared with parents.

How is progress ensured?

We build upon the knowledge and skill development of the previous years.  The use of the retrieval tasks ensures that prior learning revisited and embedded to help provide the framework for the new knowledge each year offers.

As the children’s knowledge and understanding increases, and they become more proficient in describing the art elements in art pieces with vocabulary of increasing complexity. They are able to explain how to use different art materials and tools for different effects and use them in their own art pieces with greater control. They build a bank of artists, craftspeople and designers that they can access for comparison and inspiration.

Opportunities for Art, Craft and Design outside the classroom

Children are empowered to develop their understanding of Art, Craft and Design in their own way through the opportunity to use drawing materials for their own exploration during playtimes and quiet classroom time.

Additional opportunities are provided such as art themed assemblies, visiting speakers and participation in national competitions and schemes.

Working with local artists and art organisations provides children with first-hand experience, in which artists share their work and skills, giving children an insight into the industry and its role in people’s daily lives.  Where possible, we work with artists in our local community and external agencies such as ‘Bright Ideas’, as well as create art pieces that are used for community projects.  We work collaboratively with other schools, supporting them to drive Art, Craft and Design forward across the federation.

Impact

How is the learning assessed?

Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual knowledge and skills to identify those children with gaps in learning, so that all children keep up. Sketchbooks are assessed each lesson to allow teachers to inform the way they teach subsequent lessons.

At the end of each unit, the children create and evaluate an art piece.

The teacher assesses:

• Control and use of materials and tools.
• Knowledge of the art discipline, art elements and artist.
• The development of ideas.

How is the teaching monitored and supported?

The subject leader monitors the weekly planning to ensure that it matches the MTP; that the knowledge content is covered and that the children are being given the opportunities to develop a range of skills.  Teachers are provided with CPD and guidance planning outlining the desired key knowledge and skills for all year groups, to ensure that progression is seen as the children.

How is the overall impact measured?

The teachers termly assessment data is recorded on Target Tracker to help the subject leader identify children who are exceeding age related expectations; those who are still working towards them and those whose progress has changed.

The subject leader provides up to date information and ideas about learning in Art, Craft and Design and manages the school Art resources.

At Loddiswell Primary School, we believe education has the power to give people the knowledge, skills and confidence to develop themselves as self-actualised individuals who can freely participate in, and transform the world. We provide all children with a range of high-quality Art, Craft and Design experiences in order for them to explore and develop their talents. Therefore, we measure children’s confidence and enthusiasm in both talking about and creating art pieces.