Art Curriculum Statement

At Pennington Infant school we aim to promote a love of art and creativity, giving our children the opportunities to explore and develop their skills through our carefully planned art curriculum. During the three years our children are with us, they will have the opportunity to engage in a variety of art forms including drawing, painting, collage, textiles, sculpture and printing. In addition to this we want our children to be able to take their inspiration from great artists to generate their own ideas and creativity.

Intent

The National Curriculum states that “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 work of art, craft and design.”

We aim to achieve this by fostering and encouraging our children’s natural creativity, so that they can become confident and enthusiastic artists. Our Art and Design curriculum is designed to stimulate creativity and imagination while children develop their skills and explore different media, techniques and learn about different artists.

We offer a structure and sequence of lessons to ensure they have covered the skills required to meet the aims of the national curriculum. The intent is to ensure all pupils produce creative, imaginative work. Children have the opportunity to explore their ideas and record their experiences in their sketch books, as well as exploring the work of others and evaluate different creative ideas. Children will become confident and proficient in a variety of techniques including drawing, painting, sculpting, as well as other selected craft skills, e.g. collage, printing, weaving and patterns. Children will also develop their knowledge of famous artists, designers and craft makers. Children will also develop their interest and curiosity about art and design through a series of lessons offering skills progression, knowledge progression and offering children the opportunity to ask questions and demonstrate their skills in a variety of ways. The lessons will offer the chance for children to develop their emotional expression through art to further enhance their personal, social and emotional development.

Implementation

Our Art curriculum has been carefully planned in accordance with the Early Years Framework and The National Curriculum where children develop their skills and expertise over time. The learning opportunities, technical vocabulary and skills progression for each year group will ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills.

We aim to achieve this by:

• Learning about a range of artists and their media/techniques such as...Lydia Monks Sculpture,  Matisse collage,

• Providing opportunities for all children to practise skills and techniques in continuous provision.

• Linking Art to other curriculum areas…

• Encouraging children to talk about both their own works and that of artists and say what they like and why.

• Learning about different techniques for example shading, hatching, stippling and blending and using these to add detail to their artwork.

• Explore different materials, including malleable materials like clay and a range of tools to add texture.

• Develop art vocabulary through use of common words and phrases relating to pieces of art.

Impact

Children at Pennington Infant School will become confident and enthusiastic artists who are equipped with a wide range of skills which will allow them to experiment and explore successfully when completing their own works of art. Through our broad and balanced curriculum, our children are given the opportunities to build and develop their skills while enjoying the self-expression that they experience in Art & Design. We firmly believe that all children are artists and aim to instil a love and appreciation of the Arts that will last a lifetime.  

All children will use technical vocabulary accurately and pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified. Children improve their enquiry skills and inquisitiveness about the world around them, and their impact through art and design on the world. Children will become more confident in analysing their work and giving their opinion on their own and other works of art. Children show competences in improving their resilience and perseverance by continually evaluating and improving their work. All children in school should speak confidently about their art and design work and their skills.

Art Week - 2022

Our children participated in a week long art week to raise the profile of recycling and the hazards of plastic in our oceans. As a collective, working on our HEART value of Together, the children created an art installation of bottle fish, sketches, octopi and other sea creatures.