Art and Design

'Every human being is an artist'

Joseph Beuys

“Together, we believe, achieve and enjoy”

Through our vision, we serve our community by providing an inclusive, happy, secure and caring Christian environment where all are valued and respected. We believe that God loves all his children unconditionally and values the uniqueness of the individual and recognise the diversity and range of contributions that each child can make. In our art curriculum, we ensure that children recognise and celebrate diversity within art and value the uniqueness of each piece of art. We ensure that all children contribute to their own art learning journey through inspire - explore – create – evaluate.

Following the Church of England's Vision for Education 'Life in all its fullness' John 10:10, we provide a high-quality education within a creative, stimulating, encouraging and mutually supportive environment where children are enabled to develop the skills they require to become successful in art.

Our five Crown Principles drive our art curriculum.

Challenge

Through the ‘challenge’ curriculum driver we want our children relish challenges that being an artist can bring. Our art curriculum challenges and inspires pupils to create their own work of art.

We challenge our children to think critically, observe and develop a secure understanding of art and design through our structure Inspire, Explore, Create (skill), Evaluate.

Resilience

Through the ‘resilience’ curriculum driver, we promote optimism and determination in art. We encourage the children to refine their skills through work in sketch books.

Opportunities

Through ‘opportunities’, we raise aspirations to broaden our children’s horizons – opening their eyes to the myriad careers they might pursue. In our art curriculum, our children learn about the work of a great artists, craft makers, architects and designers. There are regular opportunities to celebrate and display their artwork through exhibitions, displays and competitions. We want our pupils to have a clear understanding of the link between achieving well and having goals for the future.

Wellbeing

At Queen’s Park, we understand that happiness is linked to personal growth, health and development. We ensure our children are happy, healthy individuals. Our children know how art and design both reflect and shape our art, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.

Art lessons create a sense of calm and mindfulness when creating art work. With ‘wellbeing’ as a curriculum driver, we give children the confidence to thrive in a diverse, global society and be respectful citizens with British and Christian Values at the core.

kNowledge

Through the ‘kNowledge’ curriculum driver, we encourage our children to be resourceful learners. It is uniquely challenging and coherent to our children. The knowledge imparted in art is crafted by our curriculum leader and art subject leader to ensure that all pupils achieve secure subjective and disciplinary knowledge in art. All our teachers teach with the aim to ensure pupils have sufficient knowledge to progress through primary school and beyond.

Being an artist means that disciplinary and substantive knowledge complement each other harmoniously. Art disciplines such as sketching, painting, sculpture, craft are high profile within our art curriculum.

Art Long Term Plan

Art is taught three times throughout the year (with the exception of Year 6).

Our progression documents have been created by the Curriculum Leader and Art Subject Leader to ensure clear progress in the art disciplines: drawing, painting, sculpture, printing craft and collage.

The progression documents show key knowledge (substantive knowledge), key vocabulary and key skills (disciplinary knowledge) and assessment outcomes from EYFS – Year 6.

Vocabulary is V.I.T.A.L in Art

Valued

We value vocabulary in art and in everything we do.

Identified

Art vocabulary is identified by the art subject leader and is explicitly planned for.

Taught

Vocabulary is explicitly taught in every lesson. Our Crown Planners are used as a teaching tool for key art focused vocabulary and the art medium term plans include additional vocabulary to be taught.

Applied

Once vocabulary is taught, it is applied. Children apply their vocabulary in their speaking and listening, writing and assessment outcomes in art.

Learned

Vocabulary is revisited and relearned. Vocabulary sticks in the children’s long-term memory. Lesson by lesson, year by year, children revisit and relearn key art vocabulary.

Through an ‘explosion of experiences’, our youngest artists are exposed to the foundations of their art learning. Carefully planned art skills and experiences are provided for our children. High quality resources within our excellent provision gives the children a range of opportunities to refine their art skills: construction, craft, painting and junk modelling are just a handful of learning opportunities which are embedded within the provision daily. Art vocabulary is planned for. Staff are role models in demonstrating art vocabulary. The foundations of art learning in EYFS is linked to Year 1 and beyond.

Year 1 to Year 6

Year on year, children will build upon their art knowledge, skills and vocabulary. The curriculum leader and art subject leader have created a meaningful, sequential learning journey through art. Careful curriculum thinking and planning ensures that our children have the subject knowledge and components embedded in their long-term memories.

Both our staff and children are enthusiastic about art. Through ongoing CPD, we strive to ensure our teachers have expert knowledge of the art they teach. Our pedagogy is firmly based upon our curriculum intent of embedding concepts into long-term memory so that they are able to be recalled, to ensure substantive and disciplinary knowledge and skills can be applied fluently.

Our ‘Queen’s Park Quality First Teaching’ model ensures that lessons are effectively sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and towards defined end points.

We firmly believe that all children should have full access, including those with additional needs, to our art curriculum therefore lessons are scaffolded where appropriate in order to meet the needs of all our children.   

The sequence of lessons across art follows the same structure:

Each lesson, within the sequence, follows the structure so prior knowledge is constantly revisited and transferred to long term memory.

Our Crown Planners support our children with vocabulary and key knowledge for each unit of work. They enhance children’s understanding of key concepts, present information clearly and promote appropriate discussion.

We understand that we may not see the true impact of our art curriculum on our children as our art curriculum is just the beginning of a lifetime of learning.

Our well-constructed and well-taught art curriculum leads to great outcomes. Our results are a reflection of what our children have learnt. At Queen’s Park, our philosophy is that broad and balanced leads to great outcomes and meeting end points at the end of each key stage. 

We ensure all groups of children are given the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We strive to ensure that our children are equipped with the skills (through a growth mindset approach) to fluently be able to retrieve key facts from their semantic memory.

The quality of our children’s work, at every stage, is of a high standard. All learning is built towards an end point and at each stage of their education, we prepare our children for the next stage.

The impact of Queen’s Park art curriculum is measured through the following:

• Assessment at the end of each unit of work (a completed piece of artwork)
• Art exhibitions
• Work is assessed at the end of each lesson and at the end of each sequence
• Journey through sketchbooks to ensure children are refining technique
• Pupil voice
• Progress evident in children’s books and record of experiences
• Seeking views of parents where appropriate

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