| Philosophy |
| At Thornhill Primary School, we value art and design as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. We would like all of our children to love art and to have no limits of their ambitions in life are. Art and Design provides visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a special way of understanding and responding to the world. It enables children of all abilities to communicate what they see, feel and think through the use of colour, texture, form, pattern and different materials and processes. |
| Intent: What we are trying to achieve through our curriculum… |
| We aim to create an art curriculum that is going to inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. We believe that enjoyable and stimulating art lessons allow the children to produce creative work, explore their ideas and record their experiences. We strive to teach art lessons that enable the children to become proficient in their technique of drawing, painting, sculpting and crafting. The Art and Design curriculum at Thornhill, gives the children a chance to learn about and appreciate the varied art styles of inspirational and great artists. As pupils progress, they should gain a deeper understanding of how art and design reflects and shapes our history, and how it contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our world. |
| Implementation: How our curriculum is delivered… |
| At Thornhill, the children will create a piece of artwork every half term which will cover one of the key areas of mark making, textiles and collage, sculpture, painting or printing. The children are provided with the opportunity to develop their skills in the majority of these areas every year.
Annually, the children will study and learn about the work of a local artist and one other famous artist so that their knowledge of inspirational artists develops as they progress through school. Where possible, the children will also understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms. As a whole school, we will have a minimum of one Golden Day dedicated to arts and craft activities every year, which gives the children an additional full fun day to further develop their skills and creativity. We use our key school documents to plan our Art & Design throughout the school: LTP / Progression of Knowledge & Skills / MTP / Short term plans. There is a focus on the following disciplinary skills: Generating ideas In our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), pupils explore expressive arts and design through a combination of child initiated and adult directed activities. They have opportunities to learn by using a variety of art tools and materials to express their own ideas. |
| Impact: The difference our curriculum is making… |
| The impact of this curriculum design will lead to outstanding progress over time across key stages relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills. Our reasoning for teaching art as outlined above:
· Learn, practise, revisit and develop a variety of art skills taught in previous year groups · Gives the children an opportunity to express themselves in a creative imaginative way · Children get excited about creating their own piece of artwork to share their own talent and ideas · Knowledge of a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space · Inspires to children to explore art and design outside of school
The impact of our art curriculum is evidenced in the high-quality children’s workbooks, work on display boards and observations of the work carried out throughout the school. The art coordinator will monitor the art curriculum by completing lesson observations, availability and quality of resources, book scrutiny and pupil discussions. Class teachers make sure every child is encouraged to be creative, innovative and reflective on their own and others’ practice using the subject-specific vocabulary to support their reasoning. Through the use of workbooks and in-depth discussion around artists, their art and practices, pupils learn that art can be constantly reviewed and developed, further promoting the resilient, independent learners of Thornhill. |
Art Progression of Knowledge and Skills
