Art

Art and Design  

Vision: 

Intent At Blackpool our goal is to provide the children with opportunity and skills to become expressive, confident and reflective artists. Art, Craft and design should engage, inspire and challenge pupils. We aim to equip them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. We intend to motivate all children to embrace and excel in art and will tailor our teaching and learning to suit their needs. We will follow a key-stage appropriate 2 year rolling programme of study that maps out key skills and techniques in a progressive engaging curriculum. They will be able to use colour, texture, form, pattern and different materials to create their own independent works of art, craft and design.  Over time, children will gain skills in drawing, painting and sculpture; basic skills are introduced and then built upon.  Skills are revisited and the use of ongoing sketchbook work underpins this process.  As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design building on previous skills.

Opportunity to celebrate and make links with local community will be maximised to showcase the children’s work. During specific themed weeks, such as Multicultural week, art and design is utilised to demonstrate the children’s learning and understanding. 

Art and Design is a key component of many of our curriculum drivers at Blackpool. Most obviously 'Creativity’, but also ‘Well Being’ and ‘Communications and Connections’. They should know how art and design has shaped our history, contributes to our culture, embeds our values and most importantly know that individuality should be enjoyed and celebrated.  At Blackpool, we aim to develop a deeper understanding of art and design by exploring various artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms and their impact on culture and history.  Through taking inspiration from others, and through the use of sketchbooks, children are supported to generate their own creative ideas, and to evaluate their work and the work of others. Art is taught in an inclusive way.  For pupils with additional needs, there will be every opportunity to work towards the overall objectives of the year group.  Pupils may be supported by simplified equipment or activities, or through additional modelling of skills from adults or peers.  High expectations will challenge all children to meet their personal targets.

Cross curricular links are made where appropriate to reinforce that no subject stands alone. For example during a sculpture unit of work in Unit 2, we look at Anglo Saxon pots for inspiration. This links with the history learning for the term.

The National Curriculum Aims for Art

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

• develop 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.

Art within Early Years – Expressive Arts and Design

The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.

The endpoint for EYFS is the Early Learning Goal for Expressive Arts and Design – Creating with Materials:

• Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function
• Share their creations, explaining the process they have used
• Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories.
•  Return to and build on their previous learning, refining ideas and developing their ability to represent them.
•  Create collaboratively, sharing ideas, resources and skills
• Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing - using the tripod grip in almost all cases.
• Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paintbrushes and cutlery.
• Begin to show accuracy and care when drawing.
• Opportunities to include-  
• Handling and using tools and medium (pens, pencils and paint) 
• Collage and mixed media 
• 3-d modelling 

• Knowledge -
• Identify and name the primary and secondary colours.  
• Secure grip for pencil, paintbrush and scissors.  

Key Stage 1 

Key stage 1 Pupils should be taught:  

• to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas 

• 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 

Lesson Design in Art

The Blackpool long term programme and progression plan for art is intended to offer a rich art education for pupils. Lessons are intended to be engaging, inspiring and exciting for the learner.  

Sequences of learning will include focused time for children to generate ideas, including through learning about the work of different artists.  These artists are chosen to reflect artistic movements over time and across the world, covering artists of different cultures and backgrounds. The chosen artists covered have a very different styles and approaches to their work and the artwork studied has a range of meaning and messages. In all cases the children will be exposed to the work and life of each artist, realizing that art is emotive and a unique form of expression for each individual.  

The use of sketchbooks will be integrated in our teaching of art and within this, teachers should feel able to model sketchbook use alongside pupils (i.e. keep their own sketchbook) and let pupils discover and share for themselves.  As they move through the school, art teaching should enable pupils to build confidence in their own ideas.

Within the making phase of a sequence, teachers will balance time to carefully model a technique, with plenty of time for pupils to enjoy open-ended exploration, and project-based learning.  They should also have the confidence to celebrate places where pupils diverge from the task (as being signs that they are owning their learning).

Lessons will be designed to enable children to develop their evaluation skills, of their own work, of the work of their classmates and the work of professional artists.  We will try to ensure that evaluation activities take place throughout projects, rather than just at the end, so that they benefit and shape the creative process.

Assessment in Art

Our approach to assessing the impact of our art curriculum is through how confidently the children  can articulate and describe their own work and that of others. Teachers should consider assessment as a holistic practice, which takes place during every art lesson through conversation with pupils. Teachers will record children who are struggling to make the expected progress through the reviewed medium term plans, so that this can be targeted in future work.

Suggested question prompts for both adults and peers to use during art.

The page below is a tool that is used in Art at Blackpool school to scaffold and support discussion in Art. This page appears in all children sketchbooks and contains key vocabulary for each unit of work. Sentence stems are provided to enable children to respond appropriately to the above questions when asked.

This is what our children say about Art in our school...

'I like my sketchbook because I like looking through it to see how my art skills have improved.' Year 4

'Part of the lesson that I find interesting is when we learn about famous artists from around the world and from history. I like thinking about why they painted pictures and what they used.' Year 5

'My teacher teaches me new techniques and styles of drawing so that I gat better at it.' Year 3

'We don't just do drawing and painting in art. We use clay, and material and we sometimes do big art in groups.' Year 6

'My favourite thing about art is using paint on big pieces of paper. I really like mixing colours.' Year 1