Art and Design (Create)
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
Pablo Picasso
At Burston and Tivetshall Primary Schools, we are dedicated to nurturing self-expression, fostering creativity, instilling confidence, and encouraging a strong sense of individual identity through the wonderful world of art and design. Our goal is to ignite a passion for art within our students while helping them grasp how art and design both reflect and shape our rich history and heritage, contributing to the diverse cultures and creativity of societies worldwide. We follow the National Curriculum, striving to engage, inspire, and challenge our children, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent, and create their own unique works of art, craft, and design. As they progress, we guide them to think critically and develop a deeper understanding of art and design.
Curriculum Coverage: Reflecting Diversity and Uniqueness
Our approach to the art and design curriculum is to offer mirrors in which children can see themselves reflected and windows through which they can explore the lives and stories of people from diverse backgrounds. We carefully select subject content from the National Curriculum and craft schemes of work that represent the unique community we serve.
Curriculum Progression: Three Interrelated Strands of Knowledge
Our art curriculum is built upon three interrelated strands of knowledge:
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Procedural Knowledge:
Procedural knowledge represents the skills of an artist. We ensure vertical integration, allowing students to revisit and deepen their knowledge and understanding as they progress through different year groups. This knowledge is presented as our broad "learning aims." For instance, students learn how to analyze works of art, a skill taught in every year group from year one to year six. As they move through the school, they encounter a wider range of artworks in various media and are taught to analyze them in increasingly complex ways. This approach is supported by the use of the SOLO taxonomy, enabling students to deepen their knowledge and understanding within their year groups and fostering a mastery approach to our curriculum.
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Disciplinary Knowledge:
Disciplinary knowledge in art and design involves the interpretation of the seven elements, their use, and combination to create specific and desired effects. It also entails the critical evaluation of artists' work, including their style and techniques. We introduce students to disciplinary knowledge through seven "Big Ideas," which include concepts like Line, Shape, Color, Value, Texture, Space, and Form. These "Big Ideas" are taught, revisited, and referenced in every year group as students progress through school. This development of disciplinary knowledge helps students understand how artists use these elements to focus on specific aspects of their work.
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Substantive Knowledge:
Substantive knowledge represents the art content taught in each year group, presented as specific "learning outcomes." We make sure that our curriculum highlights and celebrates the cultural heritage of our students. As we work toward developing an anti-racist curriculum, we deliberately select aspects of art and artists/designers to ensure that our curriculum is representative of and sensitive to the community we serve.
Repetition and Retrieval: Building Strong Foundations
Our Art and Design curriculum relies on high levels of repetition to enable our students to achieve more and remember more as they progress through school. Procedural knowledge and disciplinary knowledge are revisited and developed in every class from year one to year six, ensuring that students reach the end of Key Stage Two with the ability to apply the skills and conceptual frameworks of artists with a high degree of independence.
Throughout their Art and Design projects, we share significant amounts of substantive and disciplinary knowledge with our students. Specific learning outcomes guide what we want them to know, remember, and apply. Sketchbooks are used for focused practice to develop and embed specific skills during the project. Additionally, books are placed in the reading areas of classrooms, allowing students to access their work and the work of others. Teachers also set aside time over subsequent terms to revisit these books, providing opportunities for reflection, discussion, and recall.
Assessment: Evaluating Knowledge Application
We believe that Art and Design go beyond just knowing about artists, movements, or media. Therefore, we assess our students' ability to apply their knowledge with a final assessment piece at the end of each project. This assessment includes analyzing an unseen artwork related to the area of art studied during the project. Students use the knowledge and skills they have developed to analyze the piece. This assessment, along with the child's own composition, provides valuable insights into how well the children are learning the curriculum.
