Intent:

All pupils at Exminster have the right to have rich, deep learning experiences that balance all the aspects of Art and Design. Art and design stimulates pupil creativity and imagination which is a vital to create a well-rounded education and offer children an outlet for their creativity and well-being. It provides visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a way of understanding and responding to the world.. They learn the part that art, craft and design plays in their own and others’ lives in contemporary life and in different times and cultures. This enables pupils to become involved in, enjoy, understand and appreciate the visual arts which enriches their personal lives and enables them to understand the role they play in society.

We give children as many opportunities as we can to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

We teach a curriculum that enables children to become creative and explorative by:

• Pupils are encouraged to use colour, pattern, texture, line, tone, shape, form, space and different materials and processes to communicate what they see, feel and think.
• Through art, craft and design activities they learn to make informed value judgements and aesthetic and practical decisions, becoming actively involved in making images, objects and learning to shape their own environment.
• They explore, through discussion and the making of art, the ideas and meanings in the work of artists, craftspeople and designers

Implementation:

As part of the planning process, teachers are resourced with:

• A knowledge mat which outlines key vocabulary all children must master;
• A library of online resources that teacher can access
• A cycle of lessons which carefully plans for progression of skills
• A bank list of key adults and organisations in the local community that can be accessed for specific skills, inspiration and knowledge
• Challenge questions for pupils to apply their learning in a different setting or context

Impact:

Our Art and Design curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Individual sketch books continued over each year group to show progression, record observations and to review and revisit ideas.
• Sharing good practice with other staff members.
• Through discussions with pupils about their learning.