ART & DESIGN

INTENT

At the Berkeley Academy, we STRIVE to do our best and to provide pupils with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art. We want our pupils to:

• Understand the ways art connects us with our past, helps us embrace the present, and empowers us to shape our future.
• Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
• Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
• Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
• Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms

IMPLEMENTATION

• Our Art curriculum is designed around the idea that art is far more than a series of technical skills, our holistic curriculum nurtures creative thinking skills and helps ensure pupils learn through art, as well as about art.

• We use Access Art to support our staff in delivering high quality teaching with learning carefully sequenced in order to deepen understanding of key concepts and allows all pupils to achieve to their full potential.

• Our children will learn a wide range of skills, developing understanding and showing clear progression. But crucially, the knowledge and understanding pupils will build will go far beyond just technical and factual knowledge. Our curriculum balances declarative knowledge with experiential knowledge, building self-knowledge and nurturing traits in learners which will hold them in good stead whichever direction their learning takes them.

• Art is taught in half termly blocks, opposite a Design and Technology unit. Each half term our pupils will focus on a different skill and artist. Over the course of each key stage (KS1 and both lower and upper KS2) all art skills will be taught.

• We study artists, designers and craftspeople not so we can make copies or pastiches of their style, but so we can learn from the way they see the world.

• At the beginning of each unit the pupils will study their artist and create a double page spread in their sketch books built up using examples of work, colour schemes, and facts. This helps the children to explore their artist and become familiar with their work before the unit begins.

• The unit will then progress to developing the chosen skill in their sketch books where the children are able to try out ideas, experiment, practice formal methods and apply their knowledge.

• A final piece of artwork will then be produced and displayed in their own year group ‘art gallery’ around school. These will be updated each time a unit has been completed.

• Our Early years promotes the learning of Art through a wide and varied curriculum linked to ‘Expressive arts and design’ as the development of pupils’ artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials.

Assessment

There are no national standards in Primary Art and Design, so we advocate ongoing assessment based upon lots of conversation, to discover intention and understanding, as well as looking at outcomes of the journey and end result.

Remember creativity can be fragile – so tread with care. We use lots of suggested “Can I…” statements which staff use to check pupils understanding.

IMPACT

The Berkeley Art Curriculum is about opening up what art is, giving pupils lots of different kinds of opportunities and experiences (media, techniques, approaches, artists), all underpinned by creative use of drawing and sketchbooks. We know our children are learning and making progress in Art when they: 

• Feel inspired by the work of others and are excited to develop a life-long learning for the subject
• Develop their capacity for imaginative and original thought through experimentation.
• Develop their abilities to articulate and communicate ideas, options and feelings about their own work and that of others.
• Experience an abundance of opportunities to explore and experiment with different skills and techniques.
• Learn about artists, designers and architects and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
• Achieve well in Art which is reflected through a consistent learning journey and clear progress.
• Effectively evaluate their own learning and from this see progression throughout their sketchbooks.

• Experienced many history based trips, themed days and visitors which help to embed their learning and offer lasting memories.
• Developed resilience, competence and confidence in their own ability in a range of Art skills