Art and Design

TEACH              NURTURE           CELEBRATE

At St. James CE Primary School, our curriculum is the primary way that we seek to achieve our vision: Teach – spiritual and moral values, Nurture – a sense of love and hope in ourselves and others, Celebrate – achievements, creativity and enquiring minds. Our vision is driven by a desire for all pupils to live life in all its fullness and to ensure that every pupils leaves our school with the ability and desire to: learn more; unlock their potential and make their mark on the world.

The St. James curriculum has been adapted and developed to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to meet Key Stage requirements and allow for smooth transition to the next phase of education. It has been designed to meet the needs of our pupils and to develop learners that strive to learn knew information through exploring big questions and concepts.

At St. James we think about our curriculum at 4 levels:

1. The intended curriculum: what we intend pupils to learn, including the explicit knowledge we expect them to remember, which we set out in detail.
2. The implemented curriculum: the resources and structures teachers use to deliver the curriculum.
3. The enacted curriculum: the approaches our teachers use to bring this knowledge to life for their pupils.
4. The impact of the curriculum: the changes to pupils’ long term memory our curriculum leads to and how we check and evaluate how well our pupils understand what they are taught.

At St. James our curriculum is:

• Rich in powerful knowledge, skills and vocabulary, which are specified, taught, assessed and remembered by pupils

• Well-planned and sequenced so that key concepts are built on year by year in a clear and logical progression.
• Rooted in the strongest available evidence about how pupils learn and retain knowledge in the long term.
• A well designed, cumulative curriculum structure, starting with EYFS provision, ensuring prior knowledge is always a pre-cursor to study.
• Taught by expert teachers who make skilful connections to prior knowledge as they are aware of the previous units of study.
• Underpinned by a sharp use of assessment to support and progress learning.
• Supportive of teacher workload, wellbeing and professional development.
• Diverse and forward thinking, enabling children to make connections between their local area and the wider world.

• Reflective of core British values which are embedded within the curriculum ensuring children are taught tolerance, respect and individual liberties through the conscious curriculum choices made.

The intended Curriculum

Art Policy Rationale

At St James CE Primary School, we believe that pupils should master Art and Design through effective teaching of the key areas: making, generating ideas, formal elements, knowledge of artists and evaluation of their art. Our Art curriculum is organised into blocks with each block covering a particular set of artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, 3D and collage. Vertical progression in each discipline has been deliberately woven into the fabric of the curriculum so that pupils can revisit key disciplines throughout their Primary journey at increasing degrees of challenge and complexity. In addition to the core knowledge required to be successful within each discipline, the curriculum outlines key aspects of artistic development. Each module focuses on developing different aspects of these competencies.

We encourage our pupils to enjoy, explore and appreciate the work of great artists, craft makers and designers and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms. We encourage pupils to think critically and use necessary vocabulary to express their understanding and appreciation of human creativity. By creating original artwork of their own, documenting their artwork in their sketchbooks and exploring other sources of inspiration for their own artwork, pupils generate their own artistic learning journey.

Our Aims at St James are to:

• produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
• become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
• evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
• know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
• To enable children to become visually literate and understand that art is a form of communication.
• To enable children to use a wide range of media to communicate ideas and feelings.
• To nurture and harness creativity and acquire and develop a range of skills and techniques.
• To develop children’s capacity for imaginative and original thought and to try out ideas without the fear of failing.
• To enable children through observation to learn about the world around them.
• To help children learn about the role of art, craft and design in their environment and take inspiration from it.
• To enable children to become independent in the planning and reviewing of their work
• To enable children to develop their full potential confidently and independently.

The Early Years Foundation Stage

At St. James we encourage creative work is encouraged and celebrated within our Reception class. We relate the creative development of the children to the objectives set out in the early learning goals, which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five. The children’s learning includes art, music, dance, role-play and imaginative play. The range of experience encourages children to make connections between one area of learning and another and so extends their understanding.  At St. James we provide a rich environment in which we encourage and value creativity. Children experience a wide range of activities that they respond to, using the various senses. We give them the opportunity to work alongside artists and other adults. The activities that they take part in are imaginative and enjoyable.

At St. James CE Primary School within the foundation stage we run continuous provision, where children have free access to all resources and opportunities, allowing them to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding at their own pace and interest.  We relate the creative development of the children to the points set out in the EYFS- Expressive arts and design, as well as the age-related expectations in development matters which underpin the curriculum planning for children from birth to five.

Key Stage One and Two

At St James the CUSP curriculum enables prior knowledge and skills to be revisited and reflected upon throughout both key stages. 

Pupils will be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

• To use a range of materials creatively to design and make products.
• To use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination.
• To develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.
• To be taught 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.
• To create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas.
• To improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting, printmaking, textile, 3D and collage, with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]

The implemented curriculum

The St James C of E Primary School our Art curriculum is organised into blocks with each block covering a particular set of artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, 3D and collage. Vertical progression in each discipline has been deliberately woven into the fabric of the curriculum so that pupils can revisit key disciplines throughout KS1 and KS2 at increasing degrees of challenge and complexity.

In addition to the core knowledge required to be successful within each discipline, our curriculum outlines key aspects of artistic development in the Working Artistically section. Each module will focus on developing different aspects of these competencies. This will support teachers in understanding pupils’ development as artists more broadly, as well as how successfully they are acquiring the taught knowledge and skills.

Art is a hands-on activity, teachers are directly involved with the children in the lesson to set the task, to impart knowledge, to lead activities, to monitor and develop the children's progress, to encourage development and to ensure that each child reaches an appropriate standard through:

We have used the best research to create a well sequenced and progressive curriculum map containing the key concepts children need to be procedurally fluent in to work and think like professional artists.

The key concepts in art and design we plan a progression for are as follows:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Printing
• Textiles
• 3D
• Collage

The impact of our curriculum

At St. James CE Primary School, we have a concise whole school shared definition of learning: ‘Learning is a change in long term memory.’ In order to identify the impact our curriculum is having on our pupils, teachers employ a range of assessment strategies both at the point of teaching and after.

Regular assessment of pupil needs and understanding plays a vital role here as does the provision of appropriate resources, the internet and our whiteboards offer a wealth of materials that can be matched to suit individual or group needs, enabling all pupils to develop their science knowledge and skills.

At St James CE Primary children should be assessed against their progress in understanding and applying Artistic knowledge and skills against the curriculum map. This will be self-evident from the work produced in a situation where no teacher support is given once a task has been assigned.