ART AND Design

Witnessing children feel a sense of achievement from a piece of work they have created is a real joy! This is celebrated throughout our School with colourful displays that inspire. These encourage communication, build self-esteem and praise children’s progress. Art and Design lessons are taught through the Kapow Scheme of work, which provides a spiral curriculum, building on prior learning with awesome lesson plans and quality resources that aim to build aspiration.

At Harnham Junior School, in all lessons including Art and Design we are able to celebrate perseverance, resilience and risk taking, ensuring children welcome challenge and use mistakes as opportunities to learn. Art and Design lesson are taught with the intention of providing children with a nurturing space where they can learn through exploring and experimenting. This is achieved by working in sketchbooks and completing key starter activities as well as main Art work tasks. We model Art and Design skills using visualisers and videos to demonstrate key learning.

Art and our school values of FAITH; forgiveness, Active Love, Inspiration, Tenacity and Harmony go hand in hand. Art and Design lessons provide opportunities to learn about other artists work and their lives. We enjoy listening to the children’s ideas and having class discussions about Art that link with our school values. It is a truly exciting and diverse subject for all of us! Most children love the freedom of expression encouraged by these lessons and enjoy their creativity. Looking at a piece of art work from an artist can engage and ignite a passion to create for a child. It can inspire a level of appreciation of something previously unknown. Through the creative experience, it is our intent that all our pupils will be inspired, challenged and appreciate creative works.

We hope that all children will feel a sense of achievement through their efforts in Art and Design at our school. On the surface, most people would assume all children love art, but as educators we know that there are a few that feel apprehensive when faced with this subject. At Harnham Junior School we acknowledge this challenge; guiding and encouraging all to play and explore in a range of media. It is our intention therefore to use Art as a subject that can help build self-esteem.

Art allows for our children to express themselves, develop their fine motor skills, use a different part of their brain, take risks and bring balance to their school life. We find that the experience of Art and Design lessons and the transferrable skills learnt, help bring children to a place where they are ready to tackle other areas of learning in a positive way.

In teaching Art and Design we intend to inspire and challenge; encourage personal creativity, exploration and expression. We will also support tenacity, model respect and help children to develop an understanding of the rich and diverse history of Art and Design. Lessons will include both historical and modern artists, so that children can deepen their understanding and respect for others through this vibrant subject. We aim to work harmoniously, through showing care, compassion and kindness and encouraging fun creativity!

At Harnham Junior School, we follow the Kapow scheme of work which provides excellent resources and meets the requirements of the National Curriculum for Art and Design at Key Stage 2.

Pupils are taught to develop creative skills and techniques, including fine motor skills and control of a range of materials. This is achieved through guided lessons where children are introduced to different ways of making and representing. This practice involves experimenting and exploring in different media, generating ideas and developing confidence in making skills. The children often work in sketchbooks; their making skills in 2D; drawing, painting, mixed media and photographed 3D; sculpture, craft and design is recorded here.

In this spiral curriculum, pupils revisit different skills in future years, thus building on prior knowledge including the Formal Elements. The Formal Elements are building blocks that artists use to make their work interesting and meaningful; line, shape, form, colour, texture and tone. Although children are not expected to use the term Formal Elements, they build an understanding of Art and Design through using the qualities of the Art in discussion, in analysis and evaluation. Also the teaching focusses on different Formal Elements depending on the making technique and style being learnt. These enable sequential learning for progression of skills and depth to mastery.

Diversity and representation in the Art and Design curriculum are built into our scheme of work, we teach children about a broad range of artists and makers from many cultural traditions as well as European. This is to ensure that our children are able to benefit from a wealth of human creativity and learn to value and respect different perspectives. Exploring different forms of art, sculpture, textiles and architecture from around the world. Ensuring that both historical and contemporary artists are represented and encouraging pupils to respond personally and respectfully. This approach helps pupils understand art as a subject that is ever evolving and inclusive.

The children at Harnham Juniors will deepen their knowledge and art skills as they progress through the school following our spiral curriculum. They will gain the skills of self- evaluation and reflection of their own work as well as the appreciation of the Art and Design work of others.

Our children will develop a sense of worth and achievement through our art implementation because we celebrate their work through classroom displays and the sharing of our work within our school community.

How do we know this impact?

Every lesson begins with a ‘Recap and Recall’ session which is intended to assist children in remembering key skills relevant to the continuing project. This informal discussion allows teachers to assist pupils in developing knowledge and tackling any misconceptions. Each lesson includes informal assessment, 1:1 and group teacher guidance as needed to help all children with their progress.

We also measure impact using the following methods:

• Assessing children’s work in lessons and providing children with positive and encouraging feedback.

• Through teacher learning walks.

• By looking at images of our children at work and of their final pieces.

• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).

• Curriculum Leader Book observations

• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.

In summary, the impact that our Art and Design curriculum has on our pupils and school community is one of positivity and enjoyment! This is often exhibited in lessons and displays where celebration is key. Art is a way for our children to communicate ideas and develop a positive self-esteem. We believe in turn that this will impact on their successes and approach to other areas of the curriculum.