Intent

At Lambton Primary school, we believe that art is a vital and integral part of children’s education. It provides them with opportunities to develop a range of ways in which they can share and express their individual creativity, whilst learning about and making links with a wide spectrum of different types of art in our society. Art contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self reflection. It enables pupils to develop a natural sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them. The focus is in developing proficiency in drawing, painting, understanding colour and shade and sculpture, with the overall aim of developing an understanding, awareness and inspiration of art and design.

The art curriculum will develop children’s critical abilities and understanding of their own and others’ cultural heritages through studying a diverse range of male, female, past and present artists and designers.

Children will develop their understanding of the visual language of art with effective teaching and carefully thought out sequences of lessons and experiences. Understanding of the visual elements of art and design (line, tone, texture, colour, pattern, shape, 3D form) will be developed by providing an accessible and engaging curriculum which will enable children to reach their full potential. 

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in art and design, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Art and design is taught as part of a termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. Teachers plan lessons for their class using our progression of knowledge and skills document and assessment topic front covers. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group. The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the context of the artwork, as well as the artists, architects and designers that they are learning about and being inspired by. This enables links to other curriculum areas, including humanities, with children developing a considerable knowledge of individual artists as well as individual works and art movements. A similar focus on skills means that children are given opportunities to express their creative imagination, as well as practice and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, collage and sculpture. Children’s knowledge and skills are built upon over a sequence of lessons which lead to a final piece.

Impact

By the end of the pupils’ journey through Lambton Primary School, we want pupils to have learned, improved and embedded a range of artistic skills meaning they can achieve ARE or above. We have ensured these skills are progressive. The children should have an awareness of a broad range of artists and craftspeople, and be able to consider and discuss the artworks they came across. We want our pupils to be confident to explore, experiment and take risks. Most importantly, we want children to have found and enjoyed a creative outlet knowing how this can support them and be used in everyday life.