Art | Mexborough St John

National Curriculum Aims

The national curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:

produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences

become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques

evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design

know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

The Progression of Art through school

Key stage 1

Pupils should be taught:

to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination
to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space
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.

Key stage 2

Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

Pupils should be taught:

to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas
to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
about great artists, architects and designers in history.

Intent

Art enables children to develop their creative imagination, enabling them to communicate what they see, feel and think through a range of tools, media and materials. During their time at Mexborough St John’s, children are given regular opportunities to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. Skills and techniques are taught progressively to ensure that all children are able to learn and practice in order to develop as they move through the school. We aim to ensure that all children are given high quality experiences, including those who may not have these opportunities outside of school.

Implementation

The Art and Design curriculum is built around essential knowledge, understanding and key skills. These are broken into year group expectations and show clear continuity and progress. Children produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences. Over time children become more proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques. They evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.

Clear content sequencing, progression maps and knowledge organisers, place this in the context of long-term knowledge growth.

Intelligent repetition of key concepts enables children to strengthen memory over time, thus leading to deeper understanding. It is essential that children remember the knowledge that they have been taught so that learning ‘sticks’ for them to understand new knowledge, make learning links and apply this is different contexts. The core skills of recall, understand, connect, and apply are used to facilitate this.

Early Years

In the Early Years there is continuous provision of art and design opportunities: these activities make important contributions to children’s development in the areas of Expressive Arts and Design and Communication and Language. They are also important in children’s Personal, Social and Emotional development. Art is covered in art lessons, continuous provision and as a means of communication and learning in other curriculum areas.

Key Stage 1

In Key Stage 1 children use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination. They develop a wide range of art and design techniques using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space. Children know about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities and making links to their own work.

Key Stage 2

At Key Stage 2 pupils develop their creativity further by increasing their knowledge, skills and understanding of materials and processes. Pupils’ experiences at this stage enable them to understand the diverse functions of art in the wider world. Pupils learn to improve their use of tools and become confident in using a variety of techniques. Pupils increase their awareness of the purposes of art from different historical periods and cultures and begin to ask themselves about the purpose, creation, materials, and significance of a variety of art works.

Differentiation for vulnerable groups (SEND, Pupil Premium, etc.)

Our curriculum is intended to challenge all pupils whilst still allowing all pupils to access the learning at a level that is suitable for them. Throughout the teaching sequence we ensure learning is differentiated and support is deployed in appropriate places. This is done in a variety of ways including but not limited to: support staff, visual and practical resources or a simplified version of a task.

Impact

Research shows that repetition of course content leads to sticky learning; the transfer of knowledge from the short term to long term memory. At Mexborough St John's, we achieve this through regular retrieval practise. Retrieval practise takes place at the start of every lesson allowing children to recap what they have learnt in the previous lesson as well as learning from further back. Children can speak with confidence about what they have learnt and how they can apply this to other parts of their learning. At the end of a unit, children collate their knowledge through a topic quiz. Key concepts and misconceptions are then addressed in future lessons.

Art Progress Model

Please follow the links below to view our art progress models. These document outline our rationale for sequencing learning in art and how progress happens placed in the context of long-term knowledge growth and skills development.

Year 1 - Pablo Picasso / Paul Klee / Clay tiles

Year 2 - Jorge Tabanera / Ted Harrison / Inukshuks

Year 3 - Daniel Voshart / Rhiannon Roberts / Viking faces

Year 4 - Joan Miro / Han Holbein the Younger / Canopic jars

Year 5 - L.S Lowry / Frida Kahlo / Greek pots

Year 6 - Henry Moore / Romero Britto / Clay heads

Knowledge Organisers

Knowledge organisers are a summary of the key facts and essential knowledge that pupils need about a unit of work or a curriculum subject.

Knowledge organisers can be a valuable tool for both children, staff and parents. Class teachers are usually the ones who write the knowledge organiser, to set out their expectations of what pupils should learn about a topic – and to clarify their own thinking around what is important.

Pupils will review, revise and quiz themselves using their knowledge organisers. They are also useful tools for parents as they make them more aware of what their children are learning how to support them.

Our Art Knowledge Organisers