Rothley Church of England Academy
Rothley Church Of England Academy
Art and Design
Intent
We believe that all children at Rothley C of E Academy are artists who can express themselves through any art form having been exposed to a variety of techniques and media, including traditional and current artworks and artists. Our Art curriculum is designed to engage, inspire and challenge pupils, whilst equipping them with the knowledge and skills to be able to experiment, invent and create their own works of art. As pupils progress, they should gain a deeper understanding of how Art and Design reflects and shapes our history, and how it contributes to the culture, creativity in our world. It is our ambition that by the time every child leaves, they can feel as if they have found an area of visual arts that is relevant and engaging to them. That might be through drawing, making, designing or talking about art.
It is important we create as many different kinds of opportunities as possible so that each child can reach their creative potential. We don’t want children to all go down the same path, or have the same outcome. We aim to provide a broad, balanced, knowledge rich, contemporary, diverse, exciting curriculum for all.
By the time a child has reached the end of Year 6 at this school, our goal is for them to have developed their critical and creative thinking skills, built their knowledge and understanding of a variety of materials, techniques by developing their experience of how they can make a creative response to a variety of stimulus. This starts in Foundation stage and follows children all the way through to the end of Year 6.
Ofsted said... Pupils learn the importance of specific subject disciplines at this school.
For instance, in art they understand the importance of creativity and see themselves as artists.
In our Art and Design curriculum, children will:
• produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
• become confident in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.
• evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
• Learn about great artists, craft makers and designers.
They will use artistic language to describe paintings, sculpture and other artefacts. Our Art and Design curriculum promotes key learning dispositions such as self-direction, perseverance, imagination and creativity. Additionally, alongside discrete subject skills and knowledge in Art and Design, we will nurture critical thinking skills, which can be learned in Art and then used and applied in other subjects across the curriculum.
Implementation
At Rothley we use AccessArt to support our school’s art curriculum. Below are the pathways we teach in each year group. This curriculum is designed to give all children the very best opportunity to develop their art skills and gain knowledge and skills in this subject.
At Rothley art and design is taught in every year group. Each year group contains 3 units which are spaced throughout the year and has a main focus of either painting, drawing or sculpture.
Every child from Year 1 to Year 6 has a sketchbook. We give the child ownership of their sketchbook in order to foster their sense of creativity. Children use their sketchbooks to make initial sketches, develop skills, designs, record ideas and develop opinions.
Throughout the Rothley journey, every child is given the opportunity to explore a diverse, contemporary and relevant art curriculum, where children can learn the skills of drawing, painting, printing, sculpture and digital art through the exploration of artists, craft maker and designers.
Through in-depth discussion, children explore how their art can share commonalities with famous art and use subject-specific vocabulary to discuss key artworks and their own work.
In the development of confident art critics, the children share their opinions and make informed observations about what will improve their own practical work.
EYFS
In Early Years we build young artists, we provide activities which enable an open-ended, playful exploration of materials, processes and ideas, which in turn nurture dexterity skills, promote an early understanding of visual literacy skills, and begin to build the child’s confidence in their ability to make a personal, creative response to a stimulus.
Together these opportunities provide a foundation for pupils to develop skills further. Children are given daily access to a range of creative opportunities and enjoy our carefully planned and well-resourced creative areas both indoors and out. Children create on both small and large scales and our outdoor environment supports this well. Children are encouraged to develop their communication and language skills through talking about their creations and sharing these with others to build confidence and raise self-esteem. There are also prescribed art experiences (noted in the above table) early years children will explore, these are part of the building blocks that link to our whole school art and design curriculum.
Impact
The impact of our carefully creative curriculum design will lead to excellent progress over time across key stages relative to each child’s individual starting points and their progression of skills. Our ambitious art and design curriculum will equip the children at Rothley to be enthusiastic artists. You can see a large increases in confidence, enthusiasm, skills and knowledge from the children as they progress. We ensure that all children, including those who are achieving well, as well as those who need additional support, are identified, and additional provision and strategies are planned in and discussed with class teachers to ensure successful outcomes for all. We strive to evidence how much our children enjoy and engage with our art and design curriculum in a range of ways, including pupil voice, their final artwork and in the journey of their work in individual sketchbooks and in pop up displays. At Rothley children have art enrichment opportunities through a variety of clubs. We have themed whole school art activities throughout the school year.
