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Intent

Here at Collis we aim to cultivate creative children who are inspired through our delivery of the art and design curriculum.

• Our art and design lessons should engage, inspire and challenge our children, while developing their knowledge and skills throughout their school life.
• We want children to have the opportunities to explore different media, genres, artists, architects, illustrators and sculptors. Through this exploration they have the opportunity to create and invent their own work. Children are encouraged to experiment, take risks and be innovative.
• We value the whole creative journey. Each unit starts with exploration and response to an artist, then children are given the opportunities to learn and practise new skills and knowledge. Culminating in a final piece, amalgamating all new skills learnt, these final pieces may be similar or look very different. We then encourage the children to think critically and evaluate their own and their peers work.
• We expose children to a wide selection of materials from the outset so that pupils can build their understanding and skills
• Our curriculum is designed with a clear progression of skills, knowledge and vocabulary. The breadth of vocabulary we expose them to further enhances their reading skills.

• At Collis we have a particular focus on cultural capital and prioritise visiting museums and galleries and inviting artists/illustrators into school. Some of these visits include cross-curricular activities with the wider curriculum. (e.g. Year 1 visiting bird world to look at birds in their science curriculum and then creating 3D sculptures.

Curriculum Design

Our curriculum has been designed to achieve a balance:

Traditional skills balanced with experimental

Small scale work balanced with large scale work

Quiet reflective studies balanced with active dynamic work

Individual work balanced with group work

2D work balanced with 3D work

Traditional artists balanced with contemporary

Implementation

• When delivering the creative curriculum at Collis there is a real focus on teaching the children new skills and techniques, with a clear progression of skills.   
• To ensure art lessons provide the children with a real sense of purpose, sessions and activities can often relate directly to the class topic. These cross curricular links help immerse the children in their art sessions and ensure they are memorable and provide multi-cultural education and approach to art.
• Children always have the opportunity to express their creativity as an individual and art work is not expected to look the same.
• Our curriculum is organised so that the whole school focus on similar skills at the same time in the school year with an emphasis on the key skill of drawing.
  • The artworks children study have been selected to inspire. They are being used to show how artists have explored using different materials, investigated specific themes or content or show the different skill areas – drawing, painting, collage, printing, or different sculpting techniques that we are introducing to the pupils.
  • It is important for children to be introduced to a diverse range of artists from different periods in history and from different cultures.
  • Artists chosen represent a diverse range with a mix of male and female artists and they are from, a range of cultures and ethnicities.

An example of studying and immersing children in multi-cultural art is Black History Week.

Impact

Art and design is high profile at our school. Our children love Art and Design. The last survey overwhelmingly expressed this.

The impact of our art and design is evident in the visual journey in our children’s sketchbooks.

In these you can see:

• The artist study and which children will have evaluated and commented on what they like or don’t like and techniques used.
• They will have emulated techniques and practiced skills; creating their own art inspired by the initial artwork.
• Through self-reflection they have suggested their own next steps and what they could do to make these improvements. Because of this approach - children will develop resilience when evaluating their own progress and become more confident when experimenting.
• Children will know more, remember more, and understand more about artists, designers, sculptors and architects through history and from different cultures. 

If you were to walk into an art and design lesson at Collis, you will see:

• Clear skills being taught and modelled as the learning objective that builds on previous learning
• Children using high quality vocabulary linked to the skills and subject being taught
• Children using a variety of visual aids/artists work as inspiration
• A range of high quality materials and resources
• Children confidently express what has gone well in their designs and what can be improved
• Children reflecting on their own art work and editing where necessary
• Evaluating and forming opinions about art and the world around them

An example of painting and colour theory progression within our Art curriculum: