Art Curriculum

Art, craft and design can and has embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality art and design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their owns works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.

At Chopwell Primary School we provide a rich environment in which we encourage and value creativity.  Art is a hands-on activity that needs the teacher to be directly involved with the children in the lesson; to set the task, impart knowledge, to lead activities, to monitor and develop the children’s progress, to encourage development and to ensure that each child reaches an appropriate standard. Lessons in art and design are planned in a sequence, to show a development of skills, based on objectives specific to their year group, linking learning to current curriculum topics.  These learning objectives build on prior learning and develop art skills focusing on the six fundamental elements of Art and design:

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

ChiChildren 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.

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.

Spring 1 - Year 6

Art work and peg dolls inspired by 1960s fashion. 

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.