Art and Design at Trinity

Intent:

At Trinity Primary School, we provide a loving and caring environment that ensures every child has the opportunity to reach their full creative potential. We are committed to providing all children with inspiring and engaging learning opportunities to engage in Art and design, and believe that every child within our school should have full access to the Art provision as laid down in the National Curriculum regardless of age, gender or ability.

The Art curriculum will develop children’s critical abilities and understanding of their own and others’ cultural heritages through studying a diverse range of male and female artists.

Children will develop their understanding of the visual language of art with effective teaching and effectively planned sequences of lessons and themes. Understanding of the visual elements of art and design (line, tone, texture, colour, pattern, shape, 3D form) will be developed by involving children in a range of visual, tactile and sensory experiences that will promote careful observation and an appreciation of the world around us.

Art fires children’s imagination and is a fundamental means of personal expression. While it is essentially a practical subject, Art should provide opportunities for reflection and, with increasing sensitivity, pupils should acquire the ability to make informed, critical responses of their own work and that of others. There is great pleasure to be derived from Art learning and, through deeper understanding; pupils can gain access to cultural richness and diversity. The appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts enriches all our lives.

The aims of teaching art and design in our school are:

• To engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.
• As pupils progress through school, they should begin to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
• To produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
• To become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.
• To evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
• To know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

Implementation:

Creativity and artistic thinking is given high status across the school, with a designated, highly skilled art teacher who plans and teaches art lessons for all year groups. Art is taught weekly and topics are progressive with a shared focus on both skills and knowledge, with regularly “revisit and practise” opportunities to fully perfect what they have learnt. The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the context of the artwork, as well as the artists that they are learning about and being inspired by. This enables links to other curriculum areas, including humanities, with children developing a considerable knowledge of individual artists, as well as individual works and art movements. A similar systematic approach to the development of artistic skills means that children are given opportunities to express their creative imagination, as well as practise and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture.

Trinity Primary’s Art Studio provides a stimulating and special environment for children to fully immerse themselves in their Art learning. The school’s high-quality art curriculum is supported through the availability of a wide range of quality resources, which are used to support children’s confidence in the use of different media. Children are encouraged to access the resources need and use them with skill and independence. The school’s rich historical and suburban locality is also utilised, with planned opportunities for learning outside the classroom, as well as the involvement of adults with specialist skills from the local and wider community.

Impact:

The structure of the art curriculum ensures that children are able to develop their knowledge and understanding of the work of artists, craftspeople and designers from a range of times and cultures and apply this knowledge to their own work. The consistent use of children’s sketchbooks means that children are able to review, modify and develop their initial ideas in order to achieve high quality outcomes. Children learn to understand and apply the key principles of art: line, tone, texture, shape, form, space, pattern, colour, contrast, composition, proportion and perspective. The opportunity for children to refine and develop their techniques over time is supported by effective lesson sequencing and progression between year groups. This also supports children in achieving age related expectations at the end of their cohort year.

Displays reflect the children’s sense of pride in their artwork and this is also demonstrated by creative outcomes across the wider curriculum. The school environment also celebrates children’s achievements in art and demonstrates the subject’s high status in the school, with outcomes, including sculptures, enhancing the outdoor, as well as indoor, environment. The Art curriculum at Trinity contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection. Children will achieve age related expectations in Art at the end of their cohort year.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
• Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
• Work produced in sketch books.