Intent  

At Slyne-with-Hest Primary School, we believe that through art, craft and design we want to engage, inspire and challenge pupils by introducing them to a broad range of techniques, materials and artists, craftspeople and designers. We want to equip them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, explore, take risks, invent and create. It will enable them to authentic and explore their own identity as well as being curious about respecting and connecting with others. Most importantly, we want them to foster a positive, life-long relationship with the subject and have fun. 

Implementation 

At Slyne-with-Hest Primary School we teach Art through a skills based curriculum.  

During their time in EYFS, children are taught to: 

· Safely use & explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function. 

· Share their creations, explaining the process they have used. 

Throughout each topic covered in EYFS there is plenty of topic-related artwork, where the children are helped to develop the ELGs above 

We follow the Access Art curriculum from Year 1 to Year 6 which gives teachers in each year group a pathway to follow relating to each of the following three areas:- 

Drawing and sketchbooks 

Surface and Colour 

Working in Three Dimensions. 

Teachers use a range of art works and ideas to inspire pupils and they are encouraged to develop and adapt ideas as they progress through a unit of work. Use of Art journals is encouraged in Key Stage 1 and compulsory in Key Stage 2 to enable children to explore, develop and improve ideas, techniques and skills with a range of media.  

Skills are built upon each year so that progression can be seen  across the school. All children are exposed to a range of media each year giving them the opportunity to explore, develop and embed their skills and understanding of that media, from our youngest children in Early Years to our eldest in Year 6. During each lesson progress will be assessed in a range of ways. The children will be aware of the skills they are developing and will be able to look back on what they achieved before. Through, self and peer evaluation the children will discuss what they have done well and what they will need to continue to practise and develop in order to continue to improve their skills in that particular area. The teacher will also make suggestions and refer back to previous modelling to support the children. It is also incredibly important however, that our children feel empowered in art and able to take risks 

Impact 

At the end of each year the children will have been exposed to a wide variety of different media, giving them the opportunity to use it in a different way or for a different purpose and develop a range of skills. This will build upon their prior knowledge of what they can do when using this media. Our lessons are accessible for all of our pupils and they are proud of what they have achieved. They will be able to look back at their earliest work in their sketch books and see the progress they have made when working towards their final piece of art work.  

As they move up through the school the children will begin to develop their own preferences of media and styles as they will have been exposed to them frequently throughout their time in school. They will also be able to speak about artists and their work.  

Our approach of being open and accepting of our experimentation and ‘mistakes’ will not only help to develop our children’s creativity within Art but will extend to other areas of their lives. There are many key life skills that will be developed through our attitude and teaching of Art which will support our children as they move through the school, such as respecting others and their work, or carrying on after something goes wrong or when things do not turn out how we planned. This resilience is a key skill which our children will need throughout their lives.