Intent

As a school, we believe that our core value of creativity is an integral part of a child’s education. In Art, we aim for children to be curious, reflective and adventurous, experimenting with different media and resources.  Art at The Beeches allows the children to study a variety of artists and make cross-curriculum links, particularly with DT, Science, History and Geography.

Art is an inclusive subject, which contributes to children’s personal development and celebrates excellence, through harnessing talent in this area. The subject is used as a tool to engage children who might find the more academic subjects challenging

Its focus is to develop proficiency in art skills: drawing and sketching, painting, understanding colour, tone, shape and form, exploring and developing skills in sculpture and mixed media approaches and studying artists work both critically and as inspiration.

Children develop their understanding and appreciation of Art and Design through effective teaching delivered by well-trained, passionate staff and carefully planned sequences of lessons and experiences.

Implementation

We teach a skills-based art curriculum, which allows children to express their creativity as well as providing them with opportunities to practise and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture.

Each of our artists has their own sketch book, in which they can record ideas, practise new techniques and further refine their skills. These sketchbooks give our artists the opportunity to study an existing piece of art, create a constructive and reflective critique of this work and to use these ideas to develop their own piece of related art work, enabling pupils to show resilience and dedication to complete any project to the best of their ability.  Artists from different eras are studied throughout the school to give our artists a balanced knowledge and understanding of Art concepts and skills. Where possible, explicit links to the Cornerstones topics / themes are made to make learning experiences as cohesive as possible and school visitors and trips are facilitated where appropriate to enhance the children’s understanding and skills further.

Impact

By the end of KS1, children will be able to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products. They will use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination They will begin to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space. Through their Cornerstones topics, they will have knowledge 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.

By the end of KS2, children will to develop their own techniques, including their control and use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design. They will use their sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas. Over time, they will develop mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay. They will build on their knowledge gained in KS1, learning about great artists, architects and designers in history.

Subject Leaders