Art & Design

Intent

The over-arching intent of our Art & Design Curriculum is to enable all children to think and act creatively in a range of different contexts and for a variety of reasons.  We want children to enjoy the creative process and experience – ‘the journey’ – so that they:

• Are motivated to engage in creative activities
• Are empowered to make their own creative decisions as a result of their learning
• Grow to appreciate art and design as both an individual and collective experience
• Value the significance of art and design as a tool for documenting a creative response to the world around them

Our school mantra is:

• Excellence for everyone
• Every second counts
• Everyone is accountable
• No excuses

This underpins our efforts to support all children in becoming confident, independent artists who can articulate their choices and use their learning to support them in taking creative risks rather than working towards predefined, prescribed outcomes.

Implementation

At The William Hogarth School, children learn Art and Design as a discrete subject to support progression in their skills, knowledge and experience.  Each year group undertakes 4 projects during the course of the school year.  The curriculum is designed so that the learning for each year group builds upon skills that have been learnt previously, thereby ensuring progression.

Our Art & Design curriculum is organised into 3 key pathways:

• Drawing & Sketchbooks
• Surface and Colour
• Working in 3D

Within each year group, we balance the development of skills in the pathways with exploration of a variety of media.  All teachers encourage children to experiment, take creative risks and use their learning to be innovative in their responses.  The plan for each year group provides opportunities for children to:

• Work at different scales
• Develop traditional skills and be experimental
• Undertake quiet, reflective work and more dynamic work
• Work individually and collaboratively
• Work in 2-D and 3-D

We have the very highest expectations for our pupils’ creative endeavours and capabilities.  To encourage this, we introduce them to a wide range of materials from an early age to broaden their creative experiences and build their understanding and skills.

We appreciate that Art & Design is an excellent vehicle to enrich the whole curriculum and, where appropriate and relevant links can be made, we make use of these opportunities.  As a result, the half-termly humanity topic may provide a stimulus or a starting point for learning in Art & Design.  Whole school Art & Design projects inspired by British Values or through our cultural capital work are proudly displayed and celebrated.

Throughout the year, classes make use of our fantastic, dedicated art room, diverse outside space and the wonderful surrounding parks for their weekly Art & Design lessons.  This allows for creative exploration, careful observation and a broad variety of drawing and sketching opportunities using sketchbooks (made and bought).  Children are encouraged to use their surroundings to stimulate creative responses and to explore their creativity in different contexts.

Impact

When reviewing impact, we consider all aspects of the children’s learning in Art & Design.  This includes:

• The quality of what the children have made, as well as how they made it
• The skills and processes they have developed, refined and acquired
• What they have learned about the different tools &/or equipment they have used

Children have an enormous sense of pride in their learning in Art & Design which is reflected throughout the school in vibrant and creative corridor displays.  As well as show-casing the children’s learning (process and outcome), these displays enrich and improve our school environment, demonstrating our whole school passion for the subject.   

Our Art & Design curriculum helps every child to celebrate their uniqueness and contributes to our school community’s sense of togetherness by reflecting on how our individual responses can fit in and build a collective perspective.