Art and Design

Art and Design at Ashley Down Primary School Aims (intent)

At Ashley Down we aim to provide a wide range of stimulating and rich creative opportunities that will aid and broaden our children’s artistic development.

• We want the children to enjoy and engage with a variety of artists, skills techniques and processes.

• To create learning opportunities that provide visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a unique way of responding to the world around us.

• We strive to ensure that all children have opportunities to stimulate their creativity and imagination.

• Children will be encouraged and given opportunities to be reflective and evaluate their work, expressing opinions and thinking about how they can make changes and improvements.

• Children work towards making informed independent choices about how to achieve their artistic goals

• We also aim to install a greater appreciation for the world and culture through our art and design curriculum.

What it looks like here (implementation)

At Ashley Down Primary School the teaching and implementation of art is based on the National Curriculum and supported by the ideas and background knowledge contained in the Meg Fabian series ‘Drawing is a Class Act’ and ‘Painting is a Class Act’. To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Art & Design, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the school and builds on children’s prior understanding of taught concepts and skills. The progression, and supporting documents, are built around a range of artists work and outline key vocabulary. Art is taught discreetly three terms of the year for years one to six. Connections are also made with other subjects so that art runs through other areas of the curriculum.

The Art skills are blocked into three areas:

• Drawing

• Painting

• A creative study In the EYFS art is covered mainly through continuous provision and focussed learning activities in small groups. Art skills and artists are mapped out in the termly ‘pathway’ documents.