Art
Intent
Alignment to the National Curriculum
Our Art curriculum is designed around the National Curriculum in Key Stage 1 and the Early Learning Goals in EYFS.
At Sitwell Infant School we have introduced the Kapow Primary Art Scheme as a guide for our art coverage. This enables children to experience the fundamentals of art through broad and balanced units, including exploration of the work of a wide range of artists and makers. Units guide pupils in the skills required to explore, analyse and discuss art. They are encouraged to combine their knowledge of what constitutes ‘art’, specific artists and techniques with their own experiences to evaluate artworks and to inform their own creative practices. Each unit works towards all of the National curriculum attainment targets. This allows pupils to develop their knowledge and skills around the formal elements in a holistic way.
Implementation
Pedagogical approaches
Our art curriculum encourages autonomy, with a greater emphasis on children developing their creativity through experimentation and individual responses.
It is designed with five strands that run throughout. These are:
● Generating ideas
● Using sketchbooks
● Making 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. Key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity, so allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning.
Units in each year group are organised into three core areas:
Autumn Term - Drawing
Spring Term - Painting and mixed-media
Summer Term - Sculpture and 3D
There is an emphasis on developing children’s use of sketchbooks to apply skills and knowledge throughout the whole process of creating art, including practising techniques learned as well as developing and evaluating their ideas towards an outcome.
Impact
Approaches to assessment
The impact of our art curriculum can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Ongoing evaluation is an essential part of the art process and pupils actively critique their own and peers’ artwork as part of their art sessions.
Children are assessed against the learning objectives during each half termly block of lessons on the art skills and knowledge they demonstrate through comments they make during sessions, their application of skills and ideas in their sketchbooks and through their finished pieces of artwork. Evidence from each session is also collated by teachers and added to their class Art floor books. Together this is used to determine whether the pupil is working towards, working at or working beyond age related expectations. Assessment data is recorded on the half termly subject assessment sheets.
Assessments are then used by the art subject leader to inform future planning, highlighting any gaps in learning which need to be addressed or ensuring staff are aware of pupils requiring further support.