Art and Design | Leamington Community Primary School

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.

Arts Enrichment

At our school, we believe that the arts play an important role in developing children’s creativity, confidence, curiosity and self-expression. We aim to provide a rich variety of opportunities for children to experience, explore and enjoy the arts, both within the curriculum and through a wide range of enrichment activities.

Experiencing Art First-Hand:

We believe it is important for children to experience art, artists and creative processes first-hand. Throughout their time at our school, children have opportunities to visit museums, galleries and other cultural venues, helping to bring their classroom learning to life. For example, our Year 2 children visit the Museum of Liverpool to view Ben Johnson’s Liverpool Cityscape, while Year 4 visit the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester to explore the process of weaving as part of their learning about textile artist Kayla Mattes.

Where possible, we plan our visits around workshops and learning opportunities offered by museums and galleries. We may also design our own activities to ensure that visits complement our curriculum and meet the needs and interests of our children.

We also aim to invite local artists and creative practitioners into school to deliver workshops and practical sessions. Working alongside practising artists gives children the opportunity to learn new techniques, ask questions and discover how creativity can develop into future interests and careers.

Creative Partnerships – The Bluecoat:

We are proud to work in collaboration with The Bluecoat, an art gallery and creative space in Liverpool city centre, to provide additional opportunities for our children to engage with contemporary art. Through this partnership, we run a weekly art club for children in Key Stage 2. Professionals from The Bluecoat, alongside adult volunteers from their ‘Out of the Blue’ community project, visit our school to deliver engaging art sessions and workshops. Activities are inspired by the work of contemporary artists currently exhibiting at The Bluecoat, giving our children opportunities to explore new artists, techniques, materials and creative ideas.

The partnership also extends beyond the school day, with our families being offered opportunities to take part in free family workshops and holiday art clubs. This helps to make high-quality arts experiences accessible to our children and families while strengthening our links with Liverpool’s wider creative community.

Musical Theatre and Dance:

Our commitment to the arts extends beyond the school day through our Musical Theatre and Dance clubs. These provide children with opportunities to develop their confidence, creativity and performance skills while working collaboratively and, most importantly, having fun.

Our children have enjoyed taking part in many successful performances, shows and competitions, both within the wider community and in our state-of-the-art Arts Centre. Performing provides children with much more than an opportunity to showcase their talents; it helps to build confidence, develop self-esteem and encourage self-expression. Children learn to work collaboratively, communicate effectively, persevere when faced with challenges and support one another as part of a team. Taking to the stage also gives children a real sense of pride, achievement and belonging, creating memorable experiences that can inspire a lifelong love of the performing arts.

Working with Other Schools:

We are proud of the links we have developed with local secondary schools, providing our children with further opportunities to participate in a range of arts-based activities and experiences. These partnerships allow children to work with specialist staff, experience different creative disciplines and become familiar with secondary school environments. They also help to support transition, raise aspirations and encourage children to continue their involvement in the arts as they move on to the next stage of their education.

Art Beyond the Classroom:

We encourage children to continue being creative outside of school and to share their creativity with their families. Each term, we aim to include at least one art-based activity on our homework menu, allowing children to explore ideas, materials and techniques at home. We value these opportunities for children to take ownership of their creativity and enjoy seeing the imaginative ways in which they respond to their home art projects.

Our Art Hub:

We are extremely proud of our state-of-the-art Art Hub, which provides a dedicated and inspiring space for children to create, experiment and develop their artistic skills.

The Art Hub allows children to work with a wide variety of materials and techniques in an environment specifically designed to support creativity. Having a dedicated space demonstrates the importance we place on the arts and enables children to immerse themselves fully in the creative process.

The Art Hub is also used as a space for professional development and CPD, both for our own staff and colleagues from other settings. This allows us to share good practice, develop staff confidence and expertise, and continue to strengthen the quality of arts education we provide.

Our Artsmark Journey:

We are currently working towards achieving Artsmark, reflecting our ongoing commitment to developing and celebrating high-quality arts and cultural education across our school.

Our Artsmark journey is helping us to build on the many creative opportunities already available to our children, while continuing to develop new experiences, partnerships and ways for children to have an active voice in the arts. We want the arts to be an important and visible part of school life, ensuring that every child has opportunities to create, perform, explore and be inspired.

Through our curriculum, Arts Week, visits, visiting artists, enrichment clubs, performances, creative partnerships and specialist facilities, we aim to ensure that every child has opportunities to experience, create, perform and celebrate the arts. We want our children to leave us as confident, curious and creative individuals who recognise that the arts are for everyone.

Subject Leader: Mrs McKevitt