We are proud to have achieved Artsmark Silver in 2021.
Intent
At Hunnyhill Primary School, we value Art and Design as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Our Art and Design curriculum is based on Kapow and provides the children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thought 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. Art contributes to children’s a sense of belonging and ownership by providing opportunities for children to showcase work to others. It should create a positive and inclusive experience where children are not afraid to make mistakes. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically about their own work, and the work of other artists to develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. Art planning should incorporate progression of skills and stimulate personal progression. It should be used as a platform for personal expression and the development of individuality. Authentic opportunities should be incorporated, offering real world challenges and examples, such as historical references. Children should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history and contribute to our culture.
Implementation
How is our Art curriculum organised?
Our Art scheme of work is designed with five strands that run throughout.
These are:
• Generating ideas
• Using sketchbooks
• Makings skills, including formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour)
• Knowledge of artists
• Evaluating and analysing
Units of lessons are sequential, allowing children to build their skills and knowledge, applying them to a range of outcomes. The formal elements, a key part of the national curriculum, are also woven throughout units. Key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Units in each year group are organised into four core areas:
● Drawing
● Painting and mixed media
● Sculpture and 3D
● Craft and design
National curriculum mapping shows which of our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the strands.
Our Progression of skills, knowledge and vocabulary show what is taught within each year group and how this develops to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage. It also shows how knowledge builds in the formal elements of Art.
Our units fully scaffold and support age-appropriate sequenced learning and are flexible enough to be adapted to form cross-curricular links personalised to our children’s needs. Creativity and independent outcomes are robustly embedded into our units, supporting students in learning how to make their own creative choices and decisions, so that their art outcomes, whilst still being knowledge-rich, are unique to the pupils.
Art is taught within our fortnightly rotation of foundation subjects. Lessons are always practical in nature and encourage experimental and exploratory learning with pupils using sketchbooks and Seesaw to document their ideas. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. At the start of each lesson, children complete a ‘4B4’ (four from before) to help them remember their previous learning. This includes recap from last lesson, last units and last year.
Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils by providing a highly visual record of the key knowledge and techniques learned, encouraging recall of skills processes, key facts and vocabulary
Vocabulary progression is key within our curriculum. Key vocabulary for each learning journey is identified and discussed with the children at the beginning
of the journey. Children then assess their knowledge of this vocabulary at the start, and then also the end of the learning journey to show the progress and understanding of the key vocabulary for that unit. This enables teachers to assess the children’s understanding and provide extra support if gaps are seen. Vocabulary is based on art techniques, processes and artist analysis. In order to support children to remember key terms, some vocabulary recaps previous units or progresses to deeper understanding of that term, for example in a different art medium or with more complex discussion.
Our curriculum supports teachers in their own professional development. Pupil videos created by subject specialists help pupils to see art techniques modelled by experts, to ensure the delivery of Art is of the highest quality. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD. Our curriculum has been created to ensure that teachers feel supported to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression.
As well as Art lessons, Art club is run weekly after school. This is a mixed key stage club and offers children additional opportunities to work on their own projects, often under a theme. These projects are based on one or more of the four core areas of art within our curriculum. Competitions and community projects run throughout the school year to encourage children to use their Art skills for a purpose and raise the profile of Art across the school. These include working with Red Funnel, a local ferry company, to decorate the ferries for the Isle of Wight festival period. Also working with local shops to decorate windows to celebrate the NHS and some children had their work entered into the Royal Academy Summer Show.
Coronation crown competition with local business Utilita
Artwork entered into the Royal Academy Summer show
Collaboration with Red Funnel to decorate ferries for the Isle of Wight festival. Themed ‘Myths and Music’
Collaborations with local Newport businesses to display celebration flowers in windows. One to celebrate the NHS, one for Queens Jubilee.
Impact
Our art curriculum, based on Kapow Primary curriculum is designed in such a way that children are involved in the evaluation, dialogue and decision making about their art outcomes and the improvements they need to make. By taking part in regular discussions and decision-making processes, children will not only know facts and key information about art, but they will be able to talk confidently about their own journey and have a growing understanding of how to improve. The impact of this scheme can be monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. Our adapted assessment sheets for each unit include the learning outcomes for children with secure understanding and those working at greater depth enables teachers to keep records of formative assessments for each child. Cold and Hot quizzes also take place to assess the impact of our curriculum. Children take part in a quiz at the start of the learning journey to assess gaps and then at the end of the journey to ensure these gaps have been filled.
After the implementation of Kapow Primary’s Art and design scheme, pupils should leave Hunnyhill equipped with a range of techniques and the confidence and creativity to form a strong foundation for their Art and design learning at Key Stage 3 and beyond.