Curriculum Intent

At Churchill C.E.V.C. Primary School we believe that art and design plays a vital part in our children’s education. We aim to inspire a love of creative learning within an inclusive art curriculum with space to explore our own imagination and ideas. Our well-structured lessons and ‘Art Days’ build on previous learning and use existing knowledge, whilst also allowing a creative freedom which embraces our own curiosities and interests. Our curriculum stimulates imagination and creativity, it allows children to become involved in a range of visual, tactile and sensory experiences, and allows them to communicate what they see, think and feel through the use of colour, texture, form and pattern. Children are consistently reminded that there is no right answer in art and design, and as with all subject areas, they are safe to make mistakes as these are an important part of learning in the creative process.  

Art and Design promotes careful observation and an appreciation of the world around us. We are keen to take inspiration from the beautiful Mendips and surrounding areas as well as looking at the art of other cultures.

Using the National Curriculum requirements as the basis, we have built a curriculum which will ensure the progressive development of knowledge and skills and provide high quality and engaging lessons which build upon and improve the children’s understanding of art and design. During each lesson we will also draw upon our Christian values and four key attitudes: be ready, be resilient, be responsible and be respectful where appropriate and necessary to encourage individuals.

Curriculum Implementation

In order to guarantee that we consistently deliver the essential knowledge, skills and understanding required across Key Stages 1 and 2 we have chosen to adopt the ‘Art and Design in Suffolk’ Scheme of Work. This provides us with a clearly laid out framework of relevant learning intentions, activity suggestions, details of skills, concepts, knowledge and understanding, vocabulary and curriculum links, upon which we can build and add to, with a view to creating a more bespoke working document for our school. 

There are six half termly units of work for each year group from Year 1 to Year 6. The units are based on he following areas of experience:-

• Drawing
• Painting
• Printmaking
• Collage
• Textiles
• 3-D

The teachers at Churchill use their discretion as to the order in which they choose to teach each specific unit. This is to allow the flexibility to adapt and respond to the requirements of their class and to enable more opportunity to plan relevant cross curricular links. We have also recently enjoyed our first ‘Art Day’ where the whole school spent a day focusing on the collage unit. We found this allowed children the time to fully immerse themselves in the creative process from start to finish.

              Mixed media Henri Rousseau                     Kandinsky inspired collages in Yr1                              Tigers roaming in YR 

          3-D  Models from Year 2 based on The Great Fire of London and African Animals

                     Perspective drawing skills, self portrait  and relief printing block by Yr6

At Churchill C.E.V.C. Primary we value the important role that art and design can play in response to a variety of local community and national events. Every year children take part in a competition to design a front cover for the village leaflet advertising the Christmastime church services, and the Doctors Surgery, which is just over the road, has artwork from our children hanging in it’s waiting room.  Special events like the Remembrance Day Centenary and The Olympics are celebrated through whole school art and design projects, and are displayed in our public spaces, serving as vibrant focal points which bring our school community closer together. Classes have taken trips to Bristol Art Gallery, Portishead Sculpture Park and the local parish churches of St. Mary’s and St. John’s to observe stained glass windows and brass rubbings. 

Assessment

Children’s progress through the different units of the Art and Design taught each half term is formatively assessed by teachers. Our next step is to embed assessments for individuals where future goals are considered and recorded using the three levels of progress expectations provided at the end of each unit of learning in ‘Art and Design in Suffolk’.  In July Teachers will pass this information on to the next class, so that planning for the same unit in the following year can be relevant to the needs of the children and fill any gaps in learning which may have arisen.

From Year 1 the children receive an ‘Art and Design’ sketch book which they use to practice art skills and make notes. These books travel with them as they progress through the school from year to year. They are used by the children as a tool to help them to review and modify their skills and knowledge learnt from previous art and design units.

EYFS Provision

 The Early Learning Goals for Expressive Arts and Design indicate what the children should know, understand and be able to do by the end of the reception year. Learning is delivered by providing quality experiences and activities which will enable the children to :-

• Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
• Share their creations, explaining the process they have used.

Art and Design is interwoven through all six areas of the EYFS Framework.

Impact

Through our curriculum provision, well planned lessons, encouragement and enthusiasm, the children will achieve the levels of attainment they deserve. They will have built the resilience and determination to aim to produce high quality final outcomes and be proud of what they achieve.

When the children leave our school we want them to have gained knowledge and appreciation of the work of a variety of artists, crafts people and designers from a range of times and cultures and be able to apply what they have learnt to their own work. The children will have a bank of ideas and experiences logged in their ‘Art and Design ‘ books.

We want our children to realise that art is for everyone and offers the ability to communicate and express their ideas and feelings in many different ways.