What is Art and Design?

At St. Andrew’s, we believe that Art and Design is the freedom to express interests, feelings and emotions using our imagination. It is also where our children take inspiration from masters of art and explore a range of media to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.

Through the eyes of our children, Art and Design is important because:

‘It helps us to understand how to observe and look closer at images, develop empathy and make connections between artists.’

Early Learning Goals

Children are given the opportunities:

Expressive arts and design: Exploring and using media and materials: children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Being imaginative: children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role-play and stories.

National Curriculum

Art, craft and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality art and design education should 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, they should be able 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.

Curriculum Intent

At St. Andrew’s Church of England Primary School, we value Art and Design as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Art and Design provides the children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas.

Our curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:

• produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
• become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
• evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
• know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

Implementation

The teaching and implementation of the Art and Design curriculum at St. Andrew’s C.E. Primary School is based on the Early Learning Goals and National Curriculum; it is supported by expectations from Chris Quigley Milestones, ensuring a well-structured approach.

We organise our pupils’ learning around the following structure:

• Take inspiration from the greats: This concept involves learning from both the artistic process and techniques of great artists and artisans throughout history.
• Appraise
• Develop ideas: This concept involves understanding how ideas develop through an artistic process.
• Master techniques: This concept involves developing a skill set so that ideas may be communicated.
• Evaluate

These key concepts underpin learning in each milestone. This enables pupils to reinforce and build upon prior learning, make connections and develop subject specific language. 

Art and Design is delivered by teaching specific skills and when appropriate, through opportunities for purposeful cross curricular links. Examples of cross curricular art work are evident throughout the school; examples of this include when KS1 children complete work in Science on Seasons and colour mixing in Art and Design. In addition to being threaded through different subjects throughout the year, Art and Design is taught in two units across the school year. Differentiation within Art and Design is implemented by offering the children a wide selection of choice for each task, with guidance if needed, the children self-assess and choose an activity that they believe is challenging.

Impact

Through the explicit teaching of the Art skills, teachers and the children assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. At the end of each unit, teachers complete unit evaluations, assessing attainment against the Chris Quigley Essentials milestones to make informed judgements about the depth of their learning and the progress children have made over time.