Art

Art and Design  

Vision: 

At Blackpool our goal is to provide the children with opportunity and skills to become expressive, confident and reflective artists. Art, Craft and design are vital for human creativity and 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 component curriculum. 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.  Children will be exposed to a range of artists from different cultures, backgrounds and times.  

Pupils will have 2 years in which to complete all of the learning objectives set out in 2 years Curriculum plan. For example, teachers will plan in the Year 3 and 4 learning objectives across their 2 year rolling programme to best make meaningful cross-curricular links within each unit of work. The same will be applied for Year 1/2 and Year 5/6. Reception will plan for their own one year programme.    

Aims: 

Early Years 

Expressive arts and design will be taught discretely through a mix of adult directed and child initiated activities. Creative opportunities will be available in both the indoor and outdoor learning environment, encouraging children to explore through continuous provision. The whole child approach will be adopted and therefore the characteristics of effective learning are key when planning and enabling environments.  

Children are born ready, able and eager to learn. They actively reach out to interact with other people, and in the world around them. Development is not an automatic process, however. It depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments.  

Students are introduced to early skills, which lay sound foundations for future learning, such as: 

• They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.  

• Children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways thinking about uses and purposes. 

• They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, role play and stories.  

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 

Assessment, monitoring and review

Pupils will be assessed on their art and design knowledge and achievements linked to each sequence of work which then builds towards longer term curricular goals. Assessments will be made against the planned curriculum. Sketch books are a key part of the children’s learning journey; a place where children will collate, display, experiment and evidence the skills taught. Larger pieces of individual or collaborative work will also form parts of assessments and will be showcased in the school environment, celebrating the high quality work of our students. Leaders will be responsible for monitoring the planned curriculum on a regular basis and will support the development of art teaching and learning.  

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