Art and Design

Rationale

At Leamington Community Primary School, we aim to provide a happy, secure and stimulating environment in which every child matters and is valued and encouraged to achieve their full potential through the development of a love for learning and a desire to expand their knowledge. We aim to ensure every child has the necessary skills and attributes to be successful in the next stage of their learning.

In order to fulfil our mission, we have adopted the following aims:

To promote effective learning for all children through high quality teaching – our curriculum is designed with arts and culture at its heart to ensure an immersive experience for all children. We use drama conventions to bring our classrooms alive and enable children to make an emotional response to their learning. Our teachers participate in continuous professional developmental to ensure that teaching continues to be of a high quality, current and relevant.

To provide a safe, secure, stimulating and welcoming environment where everyone is valued – we use arts and culture in all aspects of school life, and all children are involved, providing an inclusive experience for all. We provide cultural experiences for all children throughout the year and offer many extra-curricular arts and cultural opportunities throughout the school.

To ensure that our children achieve their full potential and work towards a high standard – we set high expectations of our children in all areas of the curriculum and strive to excel in the arts. We compete in art, dance and drama competitions at the highest level and use robust assessment criteria to help every child achieve their potential in the arts.

To promote good behaviour through high standards of care and mutual respect – we often use art and culture to address SMSC issues such as bullying, friendship and mental health. We work closely with our learning mentors to ensure that the mental health of our children is closely monitored.

To foster a mutually supportive partnership between home, school and our neighbourhood – we have many links with partner organisations and use these to celebrate arts and culture within our school. We also invite parents and carers to arts events and work collaboratively with other schools and organisations.

Curriculum

Our Art Curriculum is based on a 2-year cycle in which children will experience all six major art forms three times during their time at our school. The children have the opportunity to experience these art forms in Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2), Lower Key Stage 2 (Year 3 and 4) and Upper Key Stage 2 (Year 5 and 6) and there is clear progression in the skills taught at each level. The art forms are:

Painting
Printing
3D
Digital media
Collage
Textiles

As part of each unit, the children will study an influential artist from this genre. They will cover a range of periods, including classical artists, such as Paul Cezanne, and local contemporary artists such as Keith Drury. Where contemporary artists are used, we try to build links and relationships where possible. We invite artists into school to share their work with the children and use social media and other digital outlets to communicate with them.

We use drama conventions and narrative immersion where possible to make links between our art curriculum and our focus text for the term. We also use artists from the period in which a book may be set, or work that includes characters from a text. For example, Year 4 study the work of Charles Keeping as their text is The Highwayman and Charles Keeping was the illustrator of the original text. Year 5 study the work of Henri Rousseau in preparation for their batik work, which is part of the textiles unit, because it links to their work on the Rainforest.

Assessment

We have developed a robust set of progression documents that highlight the skills, techniques and knowledge children need at different stages in their primary education. We have highlighted some skills that run across all units, such as drawing, artist studies and evaluation of their own and other’s work, while there are some skills specific to different art forms. We use knowledge of these skills to assess children during each art session and we also assess the children’s knowledge, understanding and skills in these areas at the end of each unit and feedback to parents at the end of the year.

Enrichment

Our art curriculum is enriched through a number of art activities that take place as part of the school year and enable the children to engage with art, take part in workshops and develop their individual skills further.

We run an annual Art Week, where the children use art to explore a theme, which is often linked to PSHE. We often use this as a platform to link with learning mentors to address certain issues such as anti-bullying to inspire the children’s art work. We conclude the week with a large-scale exhibition in our specialised arts centre to which parents, carers and governors are invited.

We often take the children to museums and art galleries to experience art first hand. For example, Year 2 visit The Museum of Liverpool to view Ben Johnson’s Liverpool Skyline painting, and Year 4 visit The Lady Lever Art Gallery to view Henri Matisse’s collages in an exhibition space.

We design trips to museums and galleries around workshops that are on offer from the establishments, or we design our own to meet the needs of our children. We also invite local artists into school to deliver workshops and practical sessions.

Each term we display children’s work in our Art Gallery. The children all visit the art gallery and vote on their favourite pieces. The votes are collated and then prizes are awarded in our termly celebrations assemblies.

Our Art Subject Leader has attended Arts Award Advisor training and we run Arts Award with all the children in Year 4. This enables the children to become more active in their learning and also provides an opportunity to celebrate success with their families with a nationally recognised certificate and qualification.

We encourage the children to participate in art activities at home and make sure there is always at least one art project on the homework menu that goes home to parents each term.

We have also invested in a state-of-the-art Art Hub, which has given us a dedicated space to produce art, but also a place for us to run CPD sessions for our staff and those from elsewhere.

Extra-curricular

We pride ourselves in our rich opportunities for developing the arts outside the curriculum and we have many opportunities for our children to participate in art activities throughout the school year.

In collaboration with The Bluecoat, an art gallery and workshop space in Liverpool city centre, we run a weekly art club for children in Key Stage 2. Professionals from The Bluecoat and adult volunteers from their ‘Out of the Blue’ community project deliver art sessions and workshops based on work from contemporary artists who are currently on display in The Bluecoat. They also offer free family workshops and free art holiday clubs for the children at our school.

We also have a dedicated team of staff who help to run Leamington Productions, led by our Art Lead. This is a musical theatre club which runs after school for Upper Key Stage 2 children. The club is dedicated to showcasing the performance and creative arts skills and talents of children involved. The children design and create their own props and backdrops for their productions with the guidance of staff and volunteers.

We have an established Arts Council, made up from representatives from each class in Key Stage 2. The council meet on a regular basis to discuss possible arts opportunities they could organise for the school. The children are actively involved in ideas for displays, competitions, mini projects and major school events which are influential in raising the profile of the arts across the school.