Intent
At Ashcott school, we strongly believe that every child can be an artist. Art and Design is an integral part of a broad and balanced curriculum and we believe it should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent, create and evaluate their own works of art. Children are provided with opportunities to express their own opinions, ideas and interests through exploring a variety of techniques and medium. The intent is to ensure all pupils produce creative, imaginative work that they feel proud of and feel confident to evaluate their own and other’s work, valuing a variety of opinions.
Implementation
Children are taught a variety of knowledge and skills over a two-year rolling programme. Teachers create a positive attitude towards art and design and teach for progression using the Art and Design progression of skills document, which outlines the skills and knowledge needed for each strand across the year groups. We follow Access Art’s split curriculum scheme of learning, although teachers are able to adapt the learning but ensure the same knowledge and skills are met within the unit.
Children also engage in whole school activities, linked to our whole school themes (eg. Australia day and Aboriginal art). Whole school activities are shared between classes, enabling children to be motivated and inspired by the work of others, especially their ‘buddies’.
At Ashcott school, we use sketchbooks from year 1 through to year 6. The children’s books follow them throughout the years. We believe the children’s sketchbooks are for their use to express their ideas, during a unit of learning, and should not be marked or edited by staff. Their books show their learning journey of a unit through experimentation, designs, pictures, and photographs and demonstrates the knowledge, skills, techniques and use of different media, as well as progression. The end point of a unit is recorded by being produced in sketchbooks or produced on a larger scale and displayed but recorded using photography.
Impact
Our art curriculum promotes children who are confident, imaginative and knowledgeable artists. Children acquire skills in a variety of areas using a range of tools and mediums and are able to articulate themselves when creating their artwork and furthermore when observing and evaluating their own and other’s work. Children feel an excitement to get creative and learn from others.
