‘Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.’ – Mary Lou Cook

Intent of Art and Design

At Westmorland we recognise that Art enhances our children’s education and provides them with unique opportunities to express their individuality and develop their creativity through a broad range of sensory experiences.  We recognise the vital role that Art can play for our pupils in expanding their cultural life experiences. 

We believe that Art enables children to grow emotionally, intellectually and socially and provides valuable insight into different cultures, perspectives and communities. We also see Art a vital lifeline for self-expression and mental health. Children at Westmorland are encouraged to think from different viewpoints, consider their own and others ideas and are pushed to broaden their horizons and consider opinions which may be different to their own. Children go on a journey to understand themselves in the disciplinary context of “being an artist”.  Children will learn to evaluate and think critically about their own and others’ Art work

We believe a high quality Art curriculum should equip children with the skills they need to experiment, invent and create their own pieces of Art and Design. We combine the Principles of Art alongside our whole school MORE intent where children are given opportunities to develop their oracy skills through discussions, galleries within classrooms and learning key vocabulary associated with artists methods and media. Learning in Art is memorable and the children will experience using a range of methods, media and develop in the formal elements of art. Children also enjoy a range of enrichment activities beyond their classroom experiences like ART CLUB and special art days like “World Art Day”.

As they progress children will master practical skills in drawing, painting, printing and sculpture and will develop their theoretical knowledge of a range of artists and their processes.  Disciplinary knowledge of “what makes art art?” underpin the design of our curriculum, which is rich and varied with children debating, evaluating and being inspired by work from a great range of artists.

Aims-

The National Curriculum for Art and Design aims to ensure that all pupils:

1. Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
2. Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
3. Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
4. Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

Implementation of Art and Design

Coverage

The long term plan is created by the Art co-ordinator based on the National Curriculum, taking into account the Principles of Art.  

The Art curriculum is designed to cover all the objectives from the National Curriculum through varied, engaging bespoke units, which often link to other driver curriculum topics taught in year groups. This leads to memorable learning and supports children to see the “authenticity” of art as linking to real life and themes. We organise our Practical art components into 6 key areas:

• Exploring and Evaluating ideas and using sketchbooks
• Drawing
• Panting and Colour
• Sculpture and 3D (including Collage)
• Printing
• Pattern

Within these areas we cover the full 12 areas of making as expressed in the National Curriculum. We expose our children to artists spanning the full paradigms of art so they can build up a strong theoretical understanding of art history and how to understand the “Value and quality” of art through the ages. In the Early Years Art is covered through Expressive Arts and Design. Learners will talk about what they have created; develop vocabulary; fine motor skills and the control & coordination of different tool alongside their expressive creativity.

At the heart of the teaching is our MORE intent. Art lessons are memorable and exciting, full of discussion about theoretical understanding of art and evaluating artists and their intentions (including the children!). We like to get messy and enjoy using our extensive bank of media to develop master in a range of methods and techniques. In every year group throughout Key Stages 1 and 2 the children are taught 3 explicit units of Art and Design each year, this alternates with Design and Technology.

Sketchbooks are crucial to our art implementation as a space where children can explore and develop their own authentic view of themselves as an artist. Every children from Year 1 – 6 has their own sketchbook which they keep for a full phase e.g. Yr1-2, Yr3-4, Yr5-6 this allows teachers to assess the children’s progression and for children to see their own development as an ambitious artist. Every art unit builds on previous years practical, theoretical and disciplinary knowledge which support children to develop their schema of “What is Art and how do I make it?” over their full school experience.

Whole School Overview

Knowledge Organisers and art units

Each unit has either a focus artist or “Theme” for example “Ancient Art” or “colour and collage with Matisse and Alma Thomas”. The focus artist is outlet to building theoretical knowledge about art history and to learn about practical components of art through their work and techniques.

The art knowledge organisers link to a topic theme studied by year groups. The important practical sticky knowledge is front loaded in the Knowledge organiser so teachers and children understand which skill is the important skill to build on e.g. the printing units fit into the 12 ways of making but are also a window to developing drawing and painting skills. All sticky knowledge (practical, theoretical, disciplinary) is clearly highlighted and this is the knowledge that pupils are expected to master and remember.

On the back of all knowledge organisers is a planning guide to support teachers to sequence the component knowledge of art effectively. This is to support non specialist teachers with their subject knowledge and how to make sense of and structure art units to best ensure children acquire the most important knowledge.

We have a clear progression of skills and all staff access this and use it to support their planning,

What do pupils learn?

Beginning from the Early Years and all the way to Year 6, Children develop their understanding of art through the categories of knowledge as described below. Skills are broken down into components and are modelled by teachers. Children are able to explore their knowledge in Sketchbooks and then create, and reflect upon their own pieces.

• Practical knowledge (substantive) children learn and use different methods, techniques, media, materials, language and the formal elements of art which we assess alongside the principles of art as described below
• Theoretical (substantive) knowledge children learn about different art movements, styles of art, genres, themes and artists. The learn about the artistic process and intent of artist and their context in the history of art (KS2)
• Disciplinary knowledge children learn about the different paradigms of art (ancient, classical, modern, contemporary) and think about “What is art”. They are able to compare and discuss and understand that everyone has different responses and thoughts about art.

Planning a block of work and lesson structure

The subject leader has created detailed knowledge organisers with “planning guides” to planning successful art units for the majority non-art specialists at Westmorland. These include how to introduce and model using different media, techniques and materials, who to contrast study with so paradigms of art are varied and ideas for developing the three strands of knowledge.

Each art unit has a clear sequence:

This might be repeated several times depending on the focus of a unit e.g. Barbara Hepworth in year 2 each lesson is a different “theme” , or Ancient Art in Year 4 half the unit shared between Roman mosaic and Egyptian death masks. There are examples of how to plan a unit in the curriculum subject area and on the back of knowledge organisers.

As the units progress we may adopt a range of teaching methods in Art and Design:

Didactic – providing direct and clear instruction to learn new techniques eg. Modelling different lines or techniques

Directed – giving children common stimulus but allowing choice exploration e.g. colour mixing or trying out different styles of mark making

Pupil Led – pupils choose their own artist outcome. This could happen at the end of the unit for their final piece when pupils can draw from existing knowledge .

In the Early Years children may explore Art independently in the Creative Area or through an adult led activity with a particular learning focus. This is planned using the EYFS proforma. The EYFS also join in with all Art theme days.

There is no expectation to create weekly plans in Art and Design for Years 1-6, As such the Medium term plan and flip charts need to be detailed enough to demonstrate that all component knowledge is being covered. All lessons should include time to explore in Sketchbooks and experiment. There are files on the system to plan what these activities could be.

Sketchbooks at Westmorland

Every child from Year 1 to 6 has their own sketchbook. They keep their sketchbooks through a key stage e.g. through Year 1 and 2. Though year 3 and 4, and then final through year 5-6. This allows teachers and staff to see their progression and sense of self as artists growing as the component skills are grouped together in these key stages too.

Every member of staff has their own sketchbook and this is used during staff training and to model in art lessons. We proscribe to “journeyful teaching” in art as this demonstrates to pupils that everyone is an artist and we are all learning and developing. This is also supporting with school culture. Teachers enjoy teaching art and see themselves as creative even if they were not necessarily confident in this area in the past.

There is an expectation of visual notetaking in each unit of art where children look at and evaluate artists work creatively (e.g. not an English exercise!!). This will be in different degrees of detail and depth from Y1 – Y6 e.g simple colour lables to more thoughtful evaluations or comparisons to prior knowledge in  Year 6.

We adopt a mixed media approach to our sketchbooks. They are not exercise books and they will be individual, sometimes messy, but always valued, special and individual. Learning intentions are not necessary as pupils can write in their chosen lettering what their focus is e.g “texture in Van Gogh”. The majority of marks in the sketchbooks should be the pupils.

Sketchbooks are not just books for sketching. There are a wide range of activities and skills which take place in sketchbooks, and when introducing the idea of “sketchbook” to learners, it’s important that we show and validate the various activities equally. Sketchbooks can be visual or textual – most are a combination of the two. Think of sketchbooks as being places where you can “think out loud”, albeit in private. We can use some or all of these ideas in a sketchbook in our sketchbooks.

Taking In (Be a Magpie! “I Like so I borrow!”)

Activities: Collecting, Cutting, Drawing, Noting (single words, lists, sentences, quotes), Record, Photograph,

Skills and Purpose: Learning Theoretical and Disciplinary knowledge. These activities encourage learners to be observant, look out for, be curious, trust instinct, make decisions, copy and borrow, build upon, be open, be interested.

Testing Out

Activities: Drawing, Doodling, Mark-making, Painting, Printing, Collaging, Writing,

Skills and Purpose: Learning the Practical component knowledge. These activities encourage learners to experiment, explore, take creative risks, respond, practice, connect, develop, respond, manipulate, make mistakes, wonder, ask, provoke, express, reimagine, make our own.

Reflecting

Activities: Looking, Talking, Writing, Sharing, Drawing

Skills and Purpose: Becoming and artist and reflecting on their theoretical and disciplinary knowledge. Reflect, evaluate, discuss, think, understand, connect, discover, realise, share.

Please see the Sketchbook Policy for more detail and examples of expectations of where we are headed. There is a massive array of training materials created by the subject leader to support teachers plan and model their sketchbook outcomes. Staff training is ongoing.

Assessment in Art and Design.  

Assessment is constant during Art and Design lessons and units through the children’s sketchbooks. Teachers can constantly assess whether children are becoming more secure in the practical knowledge. Pupils will demonstrate they are becoming more secure in the theoretical and disciplinary knowledge through their discussion and ideas. In the higher year groups we also use their notes and annotations to assess their theoretical and disciplinary knowledge.

After each art unit we assess the children using the Art and Design Subject Assessment Format saved in the assessment area in individual Year groups. Termly we assess the practical, theoretical and disciplinary as taught on the knowledge organisers. Annually is summer we assess the 6 areas from above with the year group progression of skills. This allows us to get the full picture of progress through the year.

We can use sketchbooks, in class discussion and remarks, and their final pieces for this Summative assessment. 

Something important to acknowledge about assessing Art and Design is idea that there are lots of ways to be “good” at Art e.g. someone may produce a perfect carbon copy of an exist piece and someone may produce something wholly original.

Ideas to consider for thinking about whether someone is secure or has mastered the sticky knowledge of Art and Design is how do the children demonstrate “ambitious goals” when they are making and talking about Art.

1. Fluency – Choose from the wide range of methods and media in Drawing/Painting/Scultpture
2. Experimentation – they know about and try out methods, materials, and processes. They can make choices to find solutions
3. Authenticity – they can communicate their thinking of an issue, topic or theme.

The Art Gallery

We celebrate children’s art through display around the school. From September, each term a few outstanding pieces are selected to be displayed in the Art Gallery, which will be a striking celebration of their achievements and of progression in Art and Design through the school!

Impact

“Art has the role in Education of helping children become more like themselves instead of more like everyone else” – Sydney Gurewitz Clemens

Children’s artwork is displayed and most importantly celebrated in communal areas of the school, in classrooms and in annual community exhibitions for World Art Day! The children to develop their skills and creativity across a wide range of activities therefore by the end of their journey at Westmorland Primary School all leaners are equipped with the knowledge that art is much MORE than an end product-it is a process, experimentation, exploration and an expression of creative individuality.

Ongoing assessment takes place throughout the year and informs future lessons enabling teachers to support and challenge children appropriately. Assessments are analysed and gaps in attainment are addressed by the Subject Leader. Children enjoy and can talk about artists from ancient, traditional, modern and contemporary movements. By the end of each Key Stage, all children can apply and understand the skills, knowledge and processes they have been taught so that they are proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft, and design techniques.

Our commitment to Art in our wider creative “Arts” offer has been recognised by our Gold Artsmark Award! Artsmark is the nationally recognised mark of excellence for schools delivering quality arts and cultural provision. We are very proud of all our pupils’ hard work!