Vision

Our Art and Design Curriculum is based around the idea that art is far more than a series of technical skills. Our holistic curriculum nurtures creative thinking skills and helps ensure our pupils learn through art, as well as about art.

Curriculum Design: How our curriculum is constructed and why?

It’s our aim that by the time every child leaves primary school they can feel as if they have found an area of the visual arts that is relevant and engaging to them – that might be through drawing, or making, or designing, or talking about art. We’ve thought carefully about the purpose of art. Not just in relation to the purpose of teaching art in school but the relevance of art in all our lives. Access Art promotes open-ended creative learning where the emphasis is on the journey. The programme of study we use, Access Art, is a curriculum designed around the idea that art is far more than a series of technical skills. Our holistic curriculum nurtures creative thinking skills and helps ensure your pupils learn through art, as well as about art. Alongside the knowledge-rich curriculum, pupils will learn a wide range of skills, developing understanding and showing clear progression. But crucially, the knowledge and understanding pupils will build will go far beyond the technical and factual knowledge many current curriculums focus upon. Our curriculum balances declarative knowledge with experiential knowledge, building self-knowledge and nurturing traits in learners which will hold them in good stead whichever direction their learning takes them.

Curriculum Delivery: What our curriculum looks and feels like in action?

Within our school timetable, there is an hour a week dedicated to either Art and Design or Design and Technology, depending on the unit of study in the curriculum overview. Each unit is linked to the wider curriculum so that learning is interconnected and built on prior learning. We are fortunate to also have access to a fully resourced Art Room from which our art lessons are taught from. Each term our teachers will teach a unit based on one of these key fundamentals: Drawing & Sketchbooks, Surface & Colour and Working in Three Dimensions. The AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum is supported by a series of “Talking Points” resources, carefully curated to introduce pupils to a wide variety of artists, designers and craftspeople from across the world.

Impact: How do we know our pupils are learning, understanding and remembering our intended curriculum?

Each unit contains suggested “I Can…” statements which support teachers in checking for understanding. There are no national standards in Primary Art and Design, so we advocate gentle, ongoing assessment based upon lots of conversation, to discover intention and understanding, as well as looking at outcomes of the journey and end result.