Christ Church C of E Primary School
Art and Design
A high-quality Art and Design education embodies some of the highest forms of human creativity. It will 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. Building on this, they will be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of Art and design. They will also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
(National Curriculum 2014)
Intent
At Christ Church Primary School, we endeavour to create an environment in which children can express themselves through art and design in a variety of ways. We are committed to teaching children to be creative and reflective learners When devising our long-term progression plan for Art, we identified 6 key skills that children need to learn to be successful in their Art development. These are: collage, paint, drawing, printing, textiles, 3D sculpture. We also understand the importance of children becoming digitally literate at Christ Church and how this can be incorporated into children’s Art learning. Therefore, a digital aspect is taught to enhance or accompany a project. Through the teaching of these key skills, Art is organised into areas which we feel will provide coherence throughout the curriculum and support children in building knowledge and making learning stick. As a school, we fully recognise the importance of repetition of knowledge and skills for children to make progression and therefore children repeat coverage of the techniques and skills, but this is adapted to meet the needs and ages of the children.
Implementation
At Christ Church, staff plan and structure a sequence of lessons linked to the skill that we want the children to obtain. This ensures they have planned the knowledge and skills details in our progression document; required to meet the aims of the National Curriculum. All teaching of Art at Christ Church follows a sequence of lessons which includes: explore, techniques, create, refine, showcase and evaluate across all year groups. Each of the stages are rooted in technical knowledge and vocabulary. Using the long-term progression document and medium term-overviews teachers prepare:
- A sequence of lessons, which are coherently planned and aid progression and depth of knowledge
- Trips and visiting experts to support and enhance learning
- Displays to celebrate children’s learning
- Knowledge organisers, designed to assist children in their knowledge of their focus artist and the skill or techniques they’re learning
Building from prior learning in the EYFS to ensure coverage with our mixed age classes we use a two-year rolling programme where all children in Key Stage 1 and Lower Key Stage 2 complete cycle A and the following year cycle B.
Impact
The curriculum of Art is planned to support and demonstrate a seamless progression through school. Due to the nature of this curriculum area, Art monitoring takes various forms. A key component of this is pupil voice; school leaders use this as an effective tool to ascertain the pupils’ ability to express themselves through a range of different mediums. Sketch book monitoring throughout all year groups also takes place each half term to compliment this, allowing leaders to ensure our artists have the opportunity to develop their skills fully and showcase their talents, while also ensuring our curriculum standards are being achieved in each year group. Examples of our artists’ work is exhibited throughout school, both on our classroom and communal displays situated on our school corridors and hall.
ARTSMARK GOLD - March 2024
Awarded in 2024 we are committed to following the 7 Artsmark principles...
'Music and art are strong at Christ Church C of E Primary School. Your long-established partnership with the Music Service and the Artist in Residence (visual art) are making a deep impact on both the children and the staff. Children have the opportunity to learn a range of musical instruments such as woodwind, stringed instruments, piano. Glockenspiels and recorders and, where appropriate, some children are offered further opportunities to take part at the music centre beyond school. The Artist in Residence works with all classes on a rota and provides support and CPD to staff. This has led to staff developing a much deeper knowledge of delivering art particularly in terms of sequencing lessons and building on prior knowledge. The introduction of knowledge organisers and progression of technical vocabulary provides further support to staff in their planning and helps children to know and understand their next steps in learning. There are many opportunities for children to see live performances delivered by professional companies as well as for them to perform to an audience. Where possible, professional performances are linked to other areas of learning such as English, History and RE. It was great to read Reception children also have the opportunity to perform. Children are given genuine ownership of steering the curriculum by attending meetings with staff to offer suggestions and share ideas and lead on internal competitions. It would have been lovely to hear some examples of this in music and art. Art and music are being used to address issues and opportunities relating to diversity and inclusiveness by studying a range of musicians from around the world and exploring Islamic art. Is this planned for across the school? As you continue to develop the arts, you could consider broadening your range of arts and culture offer. For example, you might consider introducing other art forms such as animation or dance or photography. To assist you in this, you could explore new collaborations with creative practitioners and arts and cultural organisations who could help you develop new teaching resources, support a CPD programme and offer new and exciting learning opportunities for both children and staff. We wish you lots of joy and fun for your next Artsmark journey.'
Congratulations on your Artsmark Gold Award!
Art Gallery
Reception have been looking at the art work of Max Ernst. Ernst was inspired by an ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him.
He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the floor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil. The results suggest mysterious forests peopled with bird-like creatures and Ernst published a collection of these drawings.
In Year 1 and 2, we created our own portraits. Portraits came from the Renaissance era. The person’s face is the main feature of the artwork and, usually, the artist is trying to display the likeness, personality and the mood of that person.
We took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). To create our portraits, we used a variety of materials and techniques such as a wash, cutting, sticking and drawing.
In Year 1 and 2 we created our own flowers and vases. We took inspiration from Claude Monet (1840-1926) French Impressionist painter and William Morris (1834-96) British textile designer.
We created a flower by overlapping materials and collage to create texture. We also used a wash to paint our vases. Then we printed over the top to add more detail and create exciting patterns.
In Year 3 and 3/4, we explored contemporary art inspired by the styles of Antoni Gaudí and Megan Coyle. We then created our own artwork in the style of Megan Coyle. She refers to her collage technique as “painting with paper” because she carefully arranges pieces of paper to give her collages the appearance of paintings. We chose individual animals and used tissue paper to create a layering effect.
Year 4/5 and Year 5 created optical art taking inspiration from Victor Vasarely. We looked at how optical art creates an illusion for people and can sometimes reveal more than one image. We decided to use black and white as many optical artists believed this is the most effective.
When creating our artwork, it was important to make sure our circles were formed correctly. We used black markers to be able to make our lines clear. We used some shading to make the illusion even clearer.
During the Autumn term, Year 6 looked at Islamic art. As part of this topic, they explored pattern, colour and shape and used this research to design and create an Islamic inspired clay tile.
As you can see from the markings on the tiles and the colours chosen the children really have taken inspiration from the tiles that were being produced during the Islamic golden age.
