Curriculum Intent: Art and Design

Characteristics of an Artist

The ability to use visual language skilfully and convincingly (for example, line, shape, pattern, colour, texture, form) to express emotions, interpret observations, convey insights and accentuate their individuality.
The ability to communicate fluently in visual and tactile form.
The ability to draw confidently and adventurously from observation, memory and imagination.
The ability to explore and invent marks, develop and deconstruct ideas and communicate perceptively and powerfully through purposeful drawing in 2D, 3D or digital media.
An impressive knowledge and understanding of other artists, craft makers and designers.
The ability to think and act like creative practitioners by using their knowledge and understanding to inform, inspire and interpret ideas, observations and feelings.
Independence, initiative and originality which they can use to develop their creativity.
The ability to select and use materials, processes and techniques skilfully and inventively to realise intentions and capitalise on the unexpected.
The ability to reflect on, analyse and critically evaluate their own work and that of others.

A passion for and a commitment to the subject.

Implementation

The skills and knowledge that children will develop throughout each art topic are mapped across each year group and throughout the school to ensure progression. The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the context of the artwork, as well as the artists 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 practise and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, textiles and sculpture.

We will take part in a whole school art week to ensure art is given a high status throughout the school. We will invite our parents in where possible to take part in art activities and showcases to further develop the children’s love for Art and their confidence in the subject.

The school’s high quality art curriculum is supported through the availability of a wide range of quality resources, which are used to support children’s confidence in the use of different media.

Please see our Art Curriuclum year group overview which shows the accumulation of knowledge and skills from Reception to Y6.

Aspirations For The Future

Pupils develop an understanding of how subjects and specific skills are linked to future jobs.

Here are some of the jobs you could aspire to do in the future as an Artist:

Wardrobe master
Curator
Author and illustrator
Furniture designer
Fashion designer

Impact

Classroom displays reflect the children’s sense of pride in their artwork and this is also demonstrated by creative outcomes across the wider curriculum. The school environment also celebrates children’s achievements in art and demonstrates the subject’s high status in the school, with outcomes, including sculptures, enhancing the outdoor as well as indoor environment.

The Art curriculum at Our Lady of Lourdes contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection.