Our Curriculum Intent
At St Gregory’s Primary School, it is our intent that 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.
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 country.
Our Art Curriculum Implementation
Our Art and Design curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills set out in the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum states that ‘pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.’
Our Art and Design curriculum has been structured in a cross-curricular way to effectively facilitate this and to provide maximum inspiration to our artists. Art projects may be linked to a class topic to enhance the pupils’ understanding of the key historical or geographical concepts covered.
Where appropriate, Art and Design projects may also be linked to a community or cultural issue to engage our artists in the world around them and to help them understand the role that they play as an individual.
At St Gregory’s Primary School, each of our artists has their own sketch book, in which they can record ideas, practise new techniques and to further refine their skills. These sketchbooks give our artists the opportunity to study an existing piece of art, create a constructive and reflective critique of this work and to use these ideas to develop their own piece of related art work, enabling pupils to show perseverance and dedication to complete any project to the best of their ability.
Artists from different eras are studied throughout the school to give our artists a balanced knowledge and understanding of Art concepts and skills.
School visitors and trips are facilitated where appropriate to enhance the pupils’ understanding and skills further.
Our Art Curriculum Impact
Art assessment is ongoing to inform teachers with their planning, lesson activities and differentiation. Summative assessment is completed at the end of each unit to inform leaders of the improvements or skills that still need to be embedded. Art is monitored throughout all year groups using a variety of strategies such as lesson observations, pupil interviews and Sketch book monitoring. This allows leaders to ensure our artists have the opportunity to develop their skills fully and showcase their talents. Examples of our artists’ work is exhibited throughout the school, both on classroom and communal displays.