Aims

The national curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:

• produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
• become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
• 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 art forms

Intent

At Decoy School, we recognise that Art stimulates creativity, imagination and wonder in our pupils. We value Art as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. We aim to provide a mixture of visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a special way of understanding and responding to the world. It enables children of all abilities to communicate what they see, feel and think through the use of colour, texture, form, pattern, line and shape. We offer a structure and sequence of lessons to help teachers ensure they have covered the skills required to meet the aims of the national curriculum. The intent is to ensure all pupils produce creative and imaginative work. Children have the opportunity to explore their ideas, record their experiences and acquire the ability through reflection to make informed, critical responses of their own work and that of others. Children will become confident and proficient in a variety of techniques including drawing, painting, and sculpting, as well as other selected craft skills such as collage, printing and textiles. We create our lessons to engage, inspire and challenge pupils by introducing them to a broad range of techniques, materials and a mixture of contemporary, historical and diverse artists, designers and craftspeople.

Implementation

Children at Decoy will develop their interest and curiosity about Art through a series of lessons offering skills progression, knowledge progression and the opportunity to ask questions and demonstrate their skills in a variety of ways. The lessons we provide develop pupil’s techniques, their control and use of materials, creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design. Lessons will offer the chance for children to develop their emotional expression through art and to further enhance their personal, social and emotional development.

Pupils will use activities to make judgements and practical decisions about artwork and artistic experiences. They will explore ideas and meanings through the work of a range of artists and designers over history. Through learning about the roles and functions of art, pupils begin to explore the impact art has had on contemporary life and that of different times and cultures.

Impact

Decoy School believes in fostering an open-ended exploration of creativity. Teachers create a safe and nurturing environment where pupils are encouraged to take creative risks and to learn from the journey, rather than head towards a pre-defined end result. We celebrate the importance of pupils being enabled to follow their own creative pathway and believe that individual exploration is key to a successful art education. With the skills to reflect and modify, Children will become confident, proficient artists. Most importantly, we want pupils at Decoy to foster a positive, life-long relationship with the subject and to have fun in the process.