Art

Intent Statement  

At Shay Lane, we believe that every child is an artist. Our curriculum is designed to give children the opportunity to stimulate their creativity, imagination and inventiveness.

Through our Art and Design curriculum, children are challenged to produce their own creative work which communicates what they see, feel and think.

In each year group, children experiment with and develop their skills in colour, texture, form, drawing, printing and pattern using a wide variety of media and materials.

They are taught about the work of great artists, craftspeople and designers throughout history providing opportunities to make links with their own work. As pupils progress through school, they develop their critical thinking skills through evaluating and analysing creative work.

Most of all, we want the children to enjoy being creative, have fun exploring their ideas and using their amazing imaginations to develop a life-long love and appreciation of art.

The aims of art and design in our school are

• To enable children to record from first-hand experience and from imagination, and to select their own ideas to use in their work.
• To foster an enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts
• To develop a knowledge of the work great artists, craft makers and designers
• To develop their creativity and imagination 
• To develop the key skills in in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques

Implementation

We implement an art curriculum which is progressive. In each year group, art and design are taught as part of a termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. Teachers plan lessons for their class using our progression of knowledge and skills document. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group. All classes follow the same sequence for teaching Art. These are as follows:

Teaching Sequence for Art

Knowledge

Children will learn about a great artist and their work or an art style. The art could also be linked to historical art, cultural art or make other links to a topic.

Generating Ideas

Children will learn skills and techniques that link to the style of art studied. Children will explore, investigate and experiment with these skills and techniques in order to generate their own ideas for a final piece.

Making

Children will plan and create their own final piece inspired by or in the style of the artist taught. Children will select from the skills and techniques taught to inspire their own work.

Evaluating

Children will reflect on their final piece. They will discuss what they have learnt about the artist, art style, skills and techniques taught and how these can influence their future work.

The emphasis on knowledge at the beginning of each unit, ensures that children understand the context of the artwork, as well as the artists, architects and designers that they are learning about and being inspired by. . A similar focus on skills means that children are given opportunities to express their creative imagination, as well as practice and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, collage and sculpture. Children’s knowledge and skills are built upon over a sequence of lessons which lead to a final piece which the children then evaluate.

Impact

At Shay Lane Primary School, we want our Art and Design provision to impact our school community in the ways listed below.

• Art and design learning is loved by teachers and pupils across school.
• They are always keen to learn new skills and work hard to develop those shown to them.
• All children use technical vocabulary accurately and pupils are expected to know, apply and understand skills and processes specified.
• Children will become more confident in analysing their work and giving their opinion on their own and other works of art.
• Children show competences in improving their resilience and perseverance by continually evaluating and improving their work.
• They should have an awareness of a broad range of artists and craftspeople, and be able to consider and discuss the artworks they come across.
• Displays reflect the children’s sense of pride in their artwork and this is also demonstrated by creative outcomes across the wider curriculum.
• The school environment also celebrates children’s achievements in art and demonstrates the subject’s high status in the school.
• We want our pupils to be confident to explore, experiment and take risks, placing value on the process and journey that they take, not just on the finished product.
• Most importantly, we want children to have found and enjoyed a creative outlet – a means of self-expression and enjoyment.

Curriculum Drivers

Progression Document

Please click this link to access our Progression Document.

Useful Resources

Websites

Recommended Reads

Pupil Voice

Here is what some of our children say about Art.

Year One

“Art can be anything. Like a picture or a painting or something in your imagination.”
“It makes me feel calm and happy.”

Year Two

“I like sketching, it helps me to relax.”
"When I am doing art, it makes me feel like I am in a land of dreams."

Year Three

"Art is something that you want it to be, not what others tell you."
"I like painting because you can mix paints together to make different shades and colours."

Year Four

"I like sketching because it helps me calm down and concentrate on other things in life."
"Art is a way of being able to express yourself and your feelings."

Year Five

"Art is painting, drawing, sculpting and having fun."
"I like everything about art, especially painting and drawing, because it allows you to have fun."

Year Six

"I like that you can see other people’s view points and see how they feel through the art they create through expressing their emotions."
"Art is where you can design what you like and express how you feel." 

Shay Lane's Art Gallery

Art After-School Club

In art club, we are experimenting and researching areas beyond our curriculum. This involves looking at different art movements such as: Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. As well as using a range of materials across the strands of art: painting, drawing and sculpting. 

Great Big Green Week

To celebrate the Great Big Green Week, children were invited to participate in a competition. For the competition they were expected to complete a sculpture at home, using only recyclable materials. Here are some of our entries.

Celebrating individuals

The children in school thoroughly enjoy celebrating individuals in our world. We have created displays for our school fence celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, which celebrated her 70 years reign. Also, to commemorate the Queen and her passing, Year 4 created a collaborative portrait using colours from the Union Jack. 

Year One Inspire Morning

The children had a wonderful morning working with their grown ups to create a piece of art linked to their topic, 'Pirates'.