Art

Intent

At Keevil Church of England Academy, we believe that high-quality Art lessons will inspire children to think innovatively and develop creative procedural understanding.  Through being given the space and opportunity to express themselves creatively, we believe children will come to know and understand themselves, others and the world around them more deeply.

Our curriculum is organised as a progression which facilitates the re-visiting of learning through recurrent themes, such that knowledge and understanding becomes embedded in children’s long term memory.  For details of this see the document below ‘Keevil CofE Academy Art  Knowledge and Skills Progression’.

We ensure our Art Curriculum is rooted in the vision and ethos of the school, through ensuring that as well as delivering artistic knowledge and skills lessons also develop the Keevil Characteristics:

Encourage children to work together as a team, as well as value their ability to work alone. Demonstrate that every child has the power to create and make, to manipulate, learning and resilience.  To contribute to the world, for the enjoyment of their own self and for others. Communication - Children start to understand how ideas are developed through processes. Children build up resilience to getting things wrong and trying again, learning. Children practise and share their learning and skills with others, receive and offer feedback to improve communication.

Implementation

Our Art curriculum provides children with opportunities to develop their skills using a range of media and materials. Children learn the skills of drawing, painting, printing, and 3D work, and are given the opportunity to explore and evaluate different creative ideas. Children will be introduced to a range of works and develop knowledge of the styles and vocabulary used by famous artists. The skills they acquire are applied to their cross-curricular topics, allowing children to use their art skills to reflect on and explore topics in greater depth; for example, by sketching historical artefacts in detail, researching geographical locations to support their work on landscape painting or using art as a medium to express emotion and thought to enhance their personal, social and emotional development. Many areas of art link with mathematical ideas of shape and space; for example, when printing repeating patterns and designs and thinking about 3D shapes to support structures.

Art is delivered through specific units of work, as well as by exploring and developing links and topics that children encounter in their learning of other subjects.  The ‘Keevil CofE Academy Art Curriculum Overview’ below, shows how these are carefully mapped to ensure that the National Curriculum is successfully delivered in a way that builds on prior knowledge and promotes long-term retention of learning.

All teaching in the school follows our Teaching and Learning non-negotiables and expectations to ensure a high standard of provision.

Impact

Through the delivery of our curriculum children are equipped with knowledge about how to use a variety of techniques and materials, as well as developing a secure understanding of how to use these to create different effects.  They are inspired by the study of a variety of artists to explore how to express themselves.  Learning to see art as an important means of communication with others, and through this to develop their own style.  They are taught to be reflective through evaluation of their own work and that of others, as well as to constantly seek to improve.  Children are encouraged to see art as a safe space in which to take risks and experiment.