Art & Design

Art Curriculum Overview

This document details how we organise the skills, knowledge and vocabulary that is taught in Art across the school in each year group.

Art Curriculum Overview.pdf

Curriculum Intent

The purpose of Art and Design at Westmoor is to give our children the skills, concepts and knowledge necessary in order for them to express their responses to ideas and experiences in a visual or tactile form. Although a practical subject, the Art and Design curriculum provides opportunities for reflection and, with increasing sensitivity, children acquire the ability to make informed, critical responses to their own work and that of others.

Curriculum Implementation

We follow the Early Years Framework and the National Curriculum, supported by a clear progression map to ensure that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children.

Children at Westmoor learn a range of skills, concepts, attitudes, techniques and methods of working. Dedicated teaching sessions alongside school trips and artist visits enable children to explore pieces of art work, ideas, skills and artists. Children are encouraged to be creative and expressive and to think about the purpose of their work and that of others. As children progress through school they are taught to critically review and respond to their own creative work and that of their peers.

Early Years

During the Early Years, young children will be given the opportunity to explore colour, texture, shape and form in two and three dimensions. The children will have access to a wide range of constructions, collage, painting and drawing activities, both inside and outside, using appropriate tools and art materials. In order to tap their artistic potential, the children will be encouraged to develop their own creative ideas.

Key Stage 1

In Key Stage 1 children’s creativity and imagination is expanded through providing art activities which relate to their own identity and experiences, including natural materials with which they are familiar and the locality in which they live. They are encouraged to explore the visual, tactile and sensory qualities of materials and processes and begin to understand and use colour, shape and space, pattern and texture, to represent their own ideas and feelings.

Key Stage 2

In Key Stage 2 Art is about fostering children’s creativity and imagination by building on their knowledge, skills and understanding of materials and processes, through more complex activities. Children are encouraged to use their own experiences and ideas to develop an understanding of the work of the artist and the viewer whilst also developing their own independence in creative activities.

Curriculum Impact

We encourage all children to take responsibility for their own learning. A range of assessment for learning strategies are used to assess knowledge, understanding and creative skills. We measure the impact of learning through:

Observation of the children’s work during lessons to assess their capacity to learn about different methods, techniques, artists or pieces of art work
Using feedback from peers or teachers and self-assessment done to analyse and reflect upon children’s progress.
Using planning to link formal elements of Art to pupil outcomes from progression skills documents in the following four areas: generating ideas, making, knowledge and evaluation.
Peer marking – the children regularly peer mark and are encouraged to comment on each other’s work using vocabulary related to the skill taught, evaluation and self-assessments.

Relevant Documents

Here are some documents which are relevant to Art at Westmoor.