Brookvale Primary School

Intent

At Brookvale Primary School, we believe that Art and Design is a vital part of children’s education and has a significant and valuable role in the taught curriculum, as well as enrichment opportunities it offers our children. We believe a high-quality Art and Design curriculum engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. Children are able to express their individuality whilst stimulating their own imagination. Children will develop a knowledge and appreciation of significant artists, crafts people and designers and have the opportunity to evaluate their work. Children will understand how Art and Design both reflect and shape our history and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation. At Brookvale Primary School, children gain a firm understanding of what art is through drawing, painting, printing, textiles, collage, and sculpture. We are committed to developing a curiosity for the subject, as well as an understanding and appreciation of the importance of all types of art forms. We aim to provide the children with a curriculum where each child reaches their full artistic potential.

Implementation

At Brookvale Primary School, the children follow an arts process. Beginning with the research into a specific artist or style. Throughout the course of a unit the children are given the opportunity to develop their skills in a particular medium, inventing and improving their own ideas before evaluating both their own and their peers' work, in a respectful, creative and collaborative manner. The Art and Design curriculum ensures children use a rich variety of different mediums to develop their art skills. Great care has been taken to provide our children with access to a wide cultural range of artists. This is embedded in the classroom activities and children can experiment with drawing, colour, texture, form, printing, and pattern. Wherever possible, the teaching of Art and Design has cross-curricular links to other subjects. In EYFS, teachers will provide opportunities to develop pupil’s imagination and creativity and children will be able to explore different mediums and material in order to express themselves. EYFS teachers will provide a range of experiences that encourage exploration, observation, problem solving, critical thinking and discussion. These activities, both indoors and outdoors, will attract the children’s interests and curiosity. Sketchbooks will be used in KS1 and KS2 to record children’s art work, as well as classroom displays. Children will use Sketchbooks to record, explore ideas and materials, investigate and experiment. EYFS, KS1 and KS2 will have designated Art days to produce work for a whole school Art exhibition, to be displayed with Halton Primary Art Network exhibition at Runcorn Shopping City. There is a cross-curricular theme each year. Using the school stick knowledge progression documents, teachers are able to produce inclusive lessons for all children to access the Art curriculum in a fun and engaging way, further promoting a love of learning. Teachers are able to plan and deliver Art lessons which are focused on progression of key skills (drawing, painting, printing, textiles, collage and sculpture) these are mapped out across each stage and throughout school to show progression. Children are able to develop these skills by using a variety of different materials (pencil, charcoal, inks, chalk, paints, ICT software, clay, sand, plaster, pastels, mod rock, paper sculpture etc). Children will have the opportunity to celebrate their art work during celebration assemblies or family assemblies as well as on classroom displays.

Impact

Art and Design at Brookvale Primary School will instil an appreciation and enjoyment of the arts, enriching children’s learning experiences across the curriculum. Our Art and Desiign curriculum will be high quality, well thought out and planned to demonstrate a clear progression of skills and knowledge. Children will be given a wide range of opportunities to express themselves creatively, through all areas of the curriculum and will be able to discuss key artists and talk about their work. The school environment will celebrate achievements in art, including classroom and corridor displays which will demonstrate the subject’s high status in school and the children’s sense of pride in their work, reflecting our creative outcomes over the wider curriculum. Children will be reflective and evaluate their own and each other’s work of art, thinking about how they can make changes and keep improving. Our Art curriculum will provide a release, a place for reflection and a way to engage our whole selves. It will provide a platform for us to study the chronicles of others over time and our shared history. Our children will use art to have a full range of expression and to infer from the expressions of others. It will offer a reason to come together and share in an experience.