Curriculum statement for Art

Intent

At Robertswood, our Art curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:

• • • • produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
      • become proficient in 6 different artistic skill areas: drawing, painting, 3d work, textiles, printmaking and collage.
      • evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
      • know about great artists, craft makers and designers and understand the historical and cultural development of their artforms.

Implementation

We use the Suffolk scheme of Art & Design as the basis for our curriculum planning in Art & Design. The curriculum plan comprises of 6 half-termly units of work per group from Year 1 to Year 6. The units are based on the following areas: drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, textiles and 3d.

 Collaborative Art Project "Robertswood Rocks"

Children have their own sketchbooks, in which they can record ideas, practise new techniques and to further refine their skills. These sketchbooks give our artists the opportunity to study an existing piece of art, create a constructive and reflective critique of this work and to use these ideas to develop their own piece of related art work, enabling pupils to show perseverance and dedication to complete any project to the best of their ability. Artists from different eras are studied throughout the school to give our artists a balanced knowledge and understanding of art concepts and skills. All 6 disciplines are covered by each group, with class teachers deciding the order of delivery to suit the class within their long-term plan. Our medium-term plans are based on the unit plans from the Suffolk scheme. They are adapted to meet the needs and requirements of the individual classes but teachers ensure they retain the skills, processes and techniques within each of the 6 strands.

 Impact

The structure of the Art curriculum ensures that children are able to develop their knowledge and understanding of the work of artists, craftspeople and designers from a range of times and cultures and apply this knowledge to their own work. The consistent use of sketchbooks means that children are able to review, modify and develop their initial ideas in order to achieve high quality outcomes. Children learn to understand and apply the key principles of art: line, tone, texture, shape, form, space, pattern, colour, contrast, composition, proportion and perspective. The opportunity for children to refine and develop their techniques over time is supported by effective lesson sequencing and progression between year groups. This also supports children in achieving age related expectations at the end of their cohort year.
Art on display within school reflects the children’s sense of pride in their artwork and this is also demonstrated by creative outcomes across the wider curriculum. The Art curriculum at Robertswood contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection.

When children move to their secondary Art education, this experience of skills at primary level aims to give them a solid foundation on which they can continue to build a creative skillset.

     

2024 Young Arts Painting Competition

Congratulations to Olly S whose painting won Best in School in the local Year 5 and 6 painting competition hosted by The Arts Society Chiltern. Over 400 children from four local schools entered the competition to produce an A3 painting with the theme ‘My Favourite View’. 

We are really proud of all the children that took part and their effort and commitment to producing their best work, with many children demonstrating creativity in their use of colour, tone and texture.

The Arts Society awarded certificates for ‘Highly Commended’, ‘Commended’ and ‘Innovative’ work. All children who took part received a commemorative badge.

Please take a look at the gallery for this year’s winners.