Chalford Hill Primary School

CREATIVITY VOICE OUR WORLD EXPRESSION

Art Rationale

Aims

The National Curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:

produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences;
become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques;
evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design;
know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

What We Do

At Chalford Hill Primary School, we use curriculum planning from AccessArt in order to teach Art. We teach three units a year, which have been carefully selected to ensure a range of skills and artistic knowledge across the child’s whole school life.

These units teach the following skills:

- Drawing and Sketchbooks,

- Print, Collage, Colour

- Working in 3 Dimensions

- Paint, Surface, Texture

- Collaboration and Community.

For the specific units taught in each year group please see our unit overview.

We teach a progression of skills as the children move up through the classes using art sketchbooks from Year 1. These are for children to record their ideas and develop techniques. These books are then used by the children to refer back to their artistic journey through school.

We study a range of diverse artists, architects, designers and craft makers from whom the children can learn. Children learn through hands on, practical activities using a variety of media, making the most of our local environment.

Wherever possible, we draw on our local community as a starting point for artistic inspiration: through both artists and the natural environment. In addition, we aim to teach the children about the wider world of art, from local to global and from past to present to future.

Children’s art is celebrated digitally as well as through displays within the school. This includes a gallery in our entrance and many displays in school corridors. The children especially enjoy sharing their own and others’ work. This year our children have collaborated to create a beautiful mosaic artwork and a library mural.

We want our children to grow up developing their creative potential by experimenting, inventing and creating with their knowledge and skills. We want pupils to know that they have a voice, which empowers them to think critically. We want pupils to feel connected to their cultural capital and to know about how art and artists have shaped their world.

Pupils use art as a positive outlet for processing emotions and ideas: they learn through the process of art. Unit plans include prior and future learning, key vocabulary and knowledge we expect the children to know by the end of the unit (both granular and more general knowledge, which will add to the children’s understanding). You can access unit plans for each class using the links below.

As a school we value art and are working towards achieving our Artsmark Award.