Art
How we Teach Art
At Crosslee Community Primary School, we have designed an Art curriculum which centres around the National Curriculum. The curriculum we have designed enables teachers to deliver high-quality Art lessons which will inspire children to develop their creative thinking and technical understanding.
The curriculum has been carefully sequenced and spaced to facilitate spaced retrieval.In Nursery and Reception children are taught to produce creative work through 12 Expressive Arts and Design units .In Key Stage One and Two, the schemas they have built are deepened with new learning which connects to their existing prior knowledge; ensuring long term memories are created.
We have carefully selected 6 or 7 pieces of essential knowledge and vocabulary for each Art unit which enables children to build long term memories whilst managing their intrinsic load. We expect 100% of children to know 100% this knowledge and so it is rehearsed and revisited throughout the unit. The essential knowledge is given to children on a knowledge organiser along with artistic vocabulary which is identified and split into three categories: ‘known words’ ‘essential words’ and ‘aspirational words’.
At the start of each Art Lesson, children are given time and questions to enable them to ‘bridge back’ to prior knowledge they have developed in the past weeks, terms or year groups. This enables children to rehearse previously taught knowledge so that it isn't forgotten.
Our Art curriculum provides children with opportunities to master both essential knowledge and procedural skills using a range of media and materials. Through careful planning, Crosslee’s Art curriculum provides children with the chance to revisit and expand on different creative skills such as: painting, printing, collage, textiles and digital art. The skills they acquire are applied to their cross-curricular topics, allowing children to make links to previously built schemas and reflect on and explore topics in greater depth.
In Art, children are expected to be metacognitive and are taught to plan, monitor and evaluate their work, thinking about how they can make changes and keep improving. This should be meaningful and continuous throughout the process, with evidence of age-related verbal and written reflection. Children are encouraged to take risks and experiment and then reflect on why some ideas and techniques are successful or not for a particular project.
During Art lessons, children will research work by famous artists to develop knowledge of the styles and vocabulary used. We have ensured that artwork is from a range of different cultures, to reflect our schools mission statement and to value and celebrate our diversity. This will develop them as citizens and increase their cultural capital whilst deepening their understanding of the world and open a new wave of possibilities to them.
At Crosslee we believe that all children have a right to a good quality education (Art. 28 UNICEF Charter) and should have an opportunity to access the curriculum of their year group so they can become well-rounded citizens. We adapt our curriculum and pedagogy to meet the needs of all of our children, inclusive of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. We have developed a toolkit of strategies to support children with difficulties in Cognition and Learning; Social, Emotional and Mental Health; Communication and Language and Physical impairments in order for them to access and progress in Art lessons alongside their peers.
Find out more on your child's History Units using the following links: