Great Massingham and Harpley C of E Federation
Art & Design Policy
 

Our Vision

Through a positive caring environment, we provide the opportunity for every child to reach their full potential. We embrace Christian values and ensure all children are ready for their next steps.

Introduction

We are committed to providing all children with learning opportunities to engage in art and design.
The purpose of Art and Design education is to give pupils the skills, concepts and knowledge necessary for them to express their responses to ideas and experiences in a visual or tactile form. It fires their imagination and is a fundamental means of personal expression.
While it is essentially a practical subject, art should provide opportunities for reflection and, with increasing sensitivity, pupils should acquire the ability to make informed, critical responses to their own work and that of others.
There is great pleasure to be derived from Art and Design and, through deeper understanding; pupils can gain access to cultural richness and diversity. The appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts enriches all our lives.

Aims

The aims of Art and Design are:
To enable all children to have access to a varied range of high quality art experiences
To provide an imaginative, innovative and co-ordinated art programme which will foster enthusiasm for art and design amongst all the children
To foster an enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts and a knowledge of artists, craftspeople and designers, through links with the local and wider multicultural community.
To stimulate children’s creativity and imagination by providing visual, tactile and sensory experience
To help children explore the world at first hand, using all their senses and experimentation, and so gain knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live
To develop children’s understanding of colour, form, texture, pattern and their ability to use materials and processes to communicate ideas, feelings and meanings
To inspire confidence, value and pleasure in art
To cultivate children’s aesthetic awareness and enable them to make informed judgements about art and become actively involved in shaping environments
To teach children to express their own ideas, feelings, thoughts and experiences
To develop children’s design capability
To enhance children’s ability to value the contribution made by artists, craft workers and designers and respond critically and imaginatively to ideas, images and objects.

Curriculum

The children undertake a balanced programme that takes account of abilities, aptitudes and physical, emotional and intellectual development. Through Art and Design, the children learn a range of skills, concepts, attitudes, techniques and methods of working.

Early Years

During the Early Years, young children will be given the opportunity to explore colour, texture, shape and form in two and three dimensions. The children will have access to a wide range of constructions, collage, painting and drawing activities, using appropriate tools and art materials. In order to tap their artistic potential, the children will be encouraged to develop their own creative ideas.

Key Stage 1

During Key Stage 1, Art and Design is about expanding children’s creativity and imagination through providing art, craft and design activities relating to the children’s own identity and experiences, to natural and manufactured objects and materials with which they are familiar, and the locality in which they live.
Children will explore the visual, tactile and sensory qualities of materials and processes and begin to understand and use colour, shape and space, pattern and texture, to represent their own ideas and feelings.
Children will focus on the work of artists, craftspeople and designers by asking and answering questions, such as: ‘What is it like?’ ‘What do I think about it?’

Key Stage 2

During Key Stage 2, Art and Design is about fostering children’s creativity and imagination by building on their knowledge, skills and understanding of materials and processes, through providing more complex activities. Children’s experiences help them to understand the diverse roles and functions of Art and Design in the world around them.

Progression and Continuity

We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in art and design lessons. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in art and design. We ensure that the act of investigating and making includes exploring and developing ideas, evaluating and developing work. We do this through a mixture of direct teaching and individual/ group activities. Teachers draw attention to good examples of individual performance as models for the other children. They encourage children to evaluate their own ideas and methods, and the work of others, to say what they think and feel about them. We give children the opportunity within lessons to work on their own and collaborate with others, on projects in two and three dimensions and on different scales. Children also have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials and resources including other artists’ work, educational visits and computing.
We recognise the fact that we have children of differing ability in all our classes, and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies which are differentiated by task, expected outcome and/or support from peers or adults.

Art and design curriculum planning

Art is taught through a topic approach alongside Design & Technology, History and Geography. Our curriculum is carefully planned to engage and excite all our learners. Our long-term and medium-term plans map out the themes covered each term for each key stage. These plans define what we will teach and ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of work across each term.

Progress and Achievement

Children are monitored on a regular basis to check progress. We encourage all pupils to take responsibility for their own and their peers learning. A range of Assessment for Learning strategies are used, for example peer marking – the children regularly peer mark and are encouraged to comment on each others work using vocabulary related to the skill taught, evaluation, self assessments, traffic lighting achievement against objectives and success criteria, the use of talk partners and end of unit teacher/pupil evaluation. Through these, both children and adults are able to recognise the progress being made.

Assessment and Recording

Assessment is an integral part of the teaching process; it is used to inform planning and to facilitate differentiation. The assessment of children’s work is on-going to ensure that understanding is being achieved and that progress is being made.

Monitoring

Each child has an art sketchbook which serves as a cumulative record of their work and is passed on to the next teacher at the end of each year. Samples of children’s work are also collected. Monitoring takes place regularly through sampling children’s work and teacher planning , lesson observations and discussion with pupils.

Roles and Responsibilities

The subject is led by the subject leader. Standards of teaching and learning will be judged using work sampling, lesson observations, pupil voice and data review. The subject leader will report to the SLT and Governors via a subject action plan which will be reflected in the School SEF and SIDP.

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

The teaching of art and design offers opportunities to support the social development of our children through the way we expect them to work with each other in lessons. Groupings allow children to work together and give them the chance to discuss their ideas and feelings about their own work and the work of others. Their work in general helps them to develop a respect for the abilities of other children and encourages them to collaborate and co-operate across a range of activities and experiences. The children learn to respect and work with each other and with adults, thus developing a better understanding. They also develop an understanding of different times and cultures through their work on artists, designers and craftspeople.

Resources

There are a wide range of resources to support the teaching of art and design across the school. All classes have a range of basic resources kept in the classroom; large bottles of paint and some other equipment, including specialist books are kept centrally. Visits are planned to enhance learning and give hands on activity. People with an interest, or expertise, in a particular topic or area of art could be invited into school to work with the children. These might be parents, grandparents, other family members, neighbours or representatives of the local community.

Formally adopted by the Governing Board