Art at Maple Court Academy

Subject Leader: Miss Stevenson

Intent

Our Art Curriculum develops creativity, promotes independence, inspires and equips children with the knowledge and skills to create their own individualised works of Art, craft and design. We teach children to use a wide range of tools and techniques to create an individual piece of Artwork, that expresses what they think, feel, see and imagine. In Art, we promote resilience through encouraging children to experiment and make mistakes; self-questioning is used to improve upon Artists own work and children use self-evaluation (success criteria) and peer evaluation to learn how to improve their work. A skills-based approach to learning provides children with a deeper insight into Art and all techniques used so when a final outcome is produced, it ensures the focus is the skills used rather than outcome produced.  

At Maple Court Academy, we strive to provide children with the skills needed for them to follow their own creative journey. Throughout this creative journey, children learn about individual artists, sculptors and craftspeople, from local, national and international backgrounds, to provide an insight into the processes and techniques they used. Each one of our terms has a different focus: term 1- drawing, term 2- painting and term 3-3D Art and clay. Structuring terms in this manner allows each year band to build on previous skills and show progress through the years. Children are made aware of the final outcome and lessons leading to this will provide them with the skills needed to enhance their final piece. We link Art to our topics, to make it more relevant to the children and to deepen their understanding around the topic  

The Subject Leader 

As Art subject lead, I am extremely passionate about art, and I believe it is essential for children to develop their imagination and creativity. I have a long history with Art; I received an A in Art at GCSE level, and I specialised in Art as part of my Primary Education degree. I continue to enjoy art at home and regularly draw and paint in my free time. As subject leader, I provide all teachers with planning support and ideas to ensure that the curriculum is delivered in a challenging and engaging way. By providing this support, it improves staff confidence in the subject and it ensures the National Curriculum is delivered effectively. I monitor the teaching of art through book scrutinise, learning walks and pupil voice, and all feedback is spoken about with staff to ensure effective delivery of the curriculum.  

Throughout my Art Subject leader journey, I have created the curriculum employed by the school and adapted and changed it to fit with the needs of our children and to ensure that children have a greater cultural capital through learning about a wide range of artists from around the world and from the local community.  

The Curriculum

KS1 

By the end of Year 2, children will have explored the work of artists, craftspeople and designers from different times and cultures for differences and similarities.  They will be able to review what they and others have done and say what they think and feel about it. In addition, they will identify what they might change in their current work or develop in future work. In their artwork, they will be able to arrange paper for a purpose and glue materials to different backgrounds.   They will be able to fold, crumple, tear and overlap papers and they can collect, sort, name and match colours appropriate for an image.   In addition, they will create and arrange shapes appropriately. 

KS2 

By the end of Year 6, the children will be able to select and record from first hand observation, experience and imagination, and explore ideas for different purposes. They will question and make thoughtful observations about starting points and select ideas to use in their work. Throughout their planning and sketching lessons, they will edit, annotate and improve work in their sketchbook, and they will continue to explore the roles and purposes of artists, craftspeople and designers working in different times and cultures. They are able to compare ideas, methods and approaches in their own and others’ work and say what they think and feel about them.   They will be able to adapt their work according to their views and describe how they might develop it further and they can shape, form, model and construct from observation or imagination. 

EYFS

We teach Expressive Art and Design: creating with materials in EYFS in accordance with the framework implemented in EYFS. We cover a range of objectives throughout the year in both Nursery and Reception.  

In Nursery, during the Autumn Term, the children will explore different materials freely, to develop their ideas about how to use them and what to make, and they will create closed shapes with continuous lines and begin to use these shapes to represent objects. During the Spring Term, the children will build on these skills by developing their own ideas and deciding which materials to sue to express them; they will draw with increasing complexity and detail including showing emotion and they will explore colour and colour mixing. During the final Summer Term, the children will continue with all the previous terms skills and also, they will join different materials and explore different textures. 

In Reception, the children will create collaboratively, sharing ideas, resources and skills. They will use a range of different techniques and variety of materials including paint and collage. They will be able to draw using a range of materials and create pictures with a range of lines and shapes.  Throughout the year, the children will begin to make choices independently about the resources needed, and they will be able to talk about their creation.   

Assessment for learning

At Maple Court Academy, assessment is ongoing throughout every lesson with teachers identifying strengths, misconceptions and next steps. Teachers use this information to feed into subsequent learning sessions. Retrieval practice is a key element of every session. In Art, this takes the form of observational drawing, where children draw an object using previous skills taught. Whiteboard work, partner discussion and questioning are just some of the strategies that we use to identify children’s progress towards the learning outcome, identifying children’s understanding and progress. 

Pupil voice

‘Art is using your imagination to create something’ – Year 4 

‘I enjoy shading and painting in Art. I loved learning about abstract art because everything is unique and different’ – Year 6

‘Harry- I enjoy painting and learning new things’ – Year 3

‘Payton- I like that we are able to create things in Art. I enjoyed learning about Andy Warhol and how he used bright colours in his paintings.’ – Year 5