Art
Intent
Southwark Park Primary School’s Art and Design curriculum provides every child with the skills and opportunities they need to fully explore their creativity. By diligently teaching the required skills and exposing the children to a wide range of inspiring artists and art movements from many different cultures, we aim to equip the children with the ability to develop their imaginations and express their ideas in a focused and informed way.
We encourage the children to spot the similarities and differences in the techniques of artists from different cultures and times, and provide opportunities for them to practise the modelled skills. Our aim is for the children to grow skilled enough to use and apply their preferred techniques to their own work. When they start at school, they are carefully guided, and taught how to use a range of artistic skills. By Year 6, children are able to plan and design independent work, and choose for themselves the media they will use to produce it. They will leave our school knowledgeable about artists and art movements, and enthusiastic about art, as well as being capable of planning their own work using a variety of different skills.
Implementation
We have developed a school wide skills progression which includes all the skills the children are required to cover in primary school, and advice on when to teach them in sequence to ensure progression. Our art units are carefully planned, using this skills progression, to ensure children build on their art skills as they travel through the school. They are explicitly taught specific skills and techniques in drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, printing, textiles, 3D and sculpture, and digital media, inspired by a wide and diverse range of artists and art movements from different times, cultures and countries.
Each art unit, based on an artist or art movement, is taught in a sequence with 4 stages: research; skill practice; create; evaluate. First the children research their focus artists or art movements (which teachers can choose from a carefully considered selection to reflect their specific class or topic). They use this learning to gain inspiration for the art work they will be producing, and then they are explicitly taught, and able to practise the skills required to achieve it. Using this, they plan their final piece, considering how they will use their learned skills. At each stage of the process, teachers assess children’s understanding and modify their teaching accordingly. The final stage of the teaching sequence comes when children have completed their final piece. They evaluate their work, using their research from the start of the topic, and consider any changes or improvements they could make.
In Year 1, Children are provided with a sketchbook that they carry with them up the school. This enables children to build on their prior learning and hone skills from previous years, so that they might review and revisit their ideas to create art that truly represents themselves or that is inspired by their favourite artists. As the children travel up the school, they are given the opportunity to apply all their learned skills to their own projects, with increasing independence and self-direction.
Impact
The children will leave Southwark Park School with a broad knowledge of artists and art movements from a range of cultures, times and places. They will have an understanding of some of the techniques artists use to create their works, and they will have practised and used these skills to make their own artworks inspired by different artists or movements. The sketchbook that accompanies the children from Year 1 to Year 6 allows children, and adults, to monitor the progress made in each artistic skill, while providing a record of the many artists that inspired the children on their artistic journeys. By flicking back through the pages, it will be immediately apparent how each child has developed their skill in each specific skill, for example, pencil drawing. It will record where they have learnt each technique, and show where they have applied it to their independent work, in line with national curriculum objectives. By the time the children finish Year 6, this sketch book will provide a detailed collection of evidence of their achievements. They will have practised and refined their skills in painting, drawing, printing, sculpting and more. The children themselves will be well equipped to choose for themselves when and how it is best to use these skills, ready to face the artistic challenges of secondary school.
