Art Curriculum

Intent

Our Art curriculum aims to nurture creativity, curiosity, and cultural understanding in every child. Through the lens of our curriculum drivers—Enquiry, Possibilities, Cultures, and Community—we intend to:

• Enquiry: Foster a spirit of curiosity and investigation, encouraging pupils to ask questions, explore materials, and reflect on artistic processes and outcomes.
• Possibilities: Inspire pupils to see the potential of art in their lives and future careers, broadening their understanding of creative industries and personal expression.
• Cultures: Promote appreciation of diverse artistic traditions and practices from around the world, helping pupils understand and respect different perspectives.
• Community: Strengthen connections with the local and global community through collaborative art projects, exhibitions, and shared experiences.

Through our curriculum drivers we will develop art skills focusing on the six fundamental elements of Art and Design:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Printing
• Collage/textiles
• Sculpture - including clay work
• Digital media

Children explore colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space when practising these fundamental elements, developing their creativity and mastery of techniques. Children of all abilities have opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge showing progression and challenge which they can record in their very own skills book. We also aim to develop pupils’ oracy skills by embedding structured opportunities for discussion, critique, and presentation throughout the curriculum. Kagan structures are used to ensure all pupils are actively engaged, confident, and collaborative learners.

Implementation

Art is taught through a progressive, skills-based curriculum that builds knowledge, technique, and confidence over time. Our approach includes:

• Skill Progression: Pupils develop core skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, and mixed media, with increasing complexity and independence.
• Artist and Culture Studies: Pupils explore a wide range of artists and cultural art forms, making connections between their own work and that of others.
• Cross-Curricular Links: Art is linked to wider curriculum themes, enhancing understanding and relevance.
• Exploratory Learning: Lessons are designed to encourage experimentation and personal interpretation.
• Community Engagement: Pupils take part in local art initiatives, school exhibitions, and collaborative projects that celebrate shared identity and creativity.

Oracy Opportunities using Kagan Structures

We use oracy to "talk like an artist" by enabling pupils to express their creative intentions, describe techniques and influences, and reflect on their work using the language of visual arts.

• Structured Talk: Pupils engage in discussions about their own and others’ artwork using subject-specific vocabulary.
• Critique and Reflection: Regular opportunities for peer feedback and self-assessment using sentence stems and visual prompts.
• Presentation: Pupils present their work and artistic choices to peers, teachers, and the wider community.
• Debate and Dialogue: Pupils explore and discuss artistic intent, cultural significance, and personal responses to art.

Impact

By the end of their primary school education, pupils will:

• Demonstrate a secure understanding of artistic techniques and vocabulary.
• Show confidence in expressing and justifying their artistic choices through spoken and visual language.
• Reflect critically and constructively on their own work and that of others.
• Appreciate and respect a wide range of cultural art forms and practices.
• Recognise the role of art in shaping identity, community, and possibility.

Impact is measured through:

• Pupil voice and oracy using Kagan.
• Sketchbook scrutiny and final outcomes in class floor-books.
• Teacher assessment of skills and knowledge.

EYFS - Art

Expressive arts and design educational programme (taken from the EYFS Framework 2020)

The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.

Early learning goals that link to art:

In Chopwell Primary School Foundation Stage the children:-

• Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
• Share their creations, explaining the process they have used.
• Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories.
• Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paintbrushes and cutlery.
• Have daily access to a range of media and materials eg different types of paper, varying thickness/hardness of pencils, thick and thin brushes, paint, paint sticks, pastels etc. in continuous provision.
• Are taught different techniques such as drawing, painting, printing, collage, which they can then practise independently.
• Explore colour-mixing through our ‘self-service’ paint stations.
• Learn about Wassily Kandinsky and draw/paint in his style.

Summer 1 - Year 1

Amazing places in the UK sketched by the year one children using crayons, pencils, chalks and felt pens. 

Spring 1 - Year 3

Graffiti inspired by Keith Haring created by the children in year 3. 

Spring 1 - Year 1

Making natural and paper sculptures. 

Autumn 2- Year 6

Autumn 2 - Year 1

After looking at the artist Monet, the children in year one used paints and pastels to create their very own poppy field pictures. 

Autumn 2 - Year 5

The children in year five had great fun using pastels to create Nebula pastel images. After that the children used silk paints to create Nebula images too. 

Autumn 2 - Year 2

The children in year two had great fun creating tissue paper fire collages and using crayons and paint to scrape firework pictures. 

Summer 1-Year 2

For our topic "Sensational Safari" we have been learning about Africa. We have looked at the colours and patterns used in African art and we have created our own animal collages using different patterns influenced by Africa. We know that different textures can make our art more interesting. We explored different textures to create our lion collages. 

Spring 2 - Reception

The children in reception have been learning about jungle animals. Using various materials the children have created a collage monkey hanging from a tree as well as a lion with a fabulous pasta mane. 

Spring 1 - Year Five and Six

The children in UKS2 have been practising blending techniques using oil pastels. They used these techniques to create their rainforest animals. 

To begin with, they used view finders to select interesting parts of the animals before sketching them on paper. They then used oil pastels to create shades of light and dark by blending colours to give a realistic effect. The results were truly outstanding!

Autumn 1 - Year Five and Six

The children in UKS2 had great fun this term sketching and shading various sea creatures. The children then experimented with mixing watercolours ready to paint underwater sea creatures and seascapes. 

Autumn 1 - EYFS

This term the children have been working on their fine motor skills and learning to make marks using, paints, pencils, chalks and pens. The children have also had the opportunity to paint firework pictures and mix colours just like Kandinsky. 

Lumiere

Our annual arts week culminates in our Lumiere Festival. Over the week every parent/carer is invited into school to work with their child to make a 3D structure that's  then lit up at the festival on Friday night. The themes usually follow the topics taught in school that term. Some of the topics were changed around to incorporate a space theme this year as we were lucky enough to have Astro-Adventurers with giant telescopes- star gazing and our partners NU:STEM giving space talks to the older children and reading space stories to the smaller children.