Art

INTENT 
At Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, we recognise that art and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity and is an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. We have designed a curriculum for Art & Design with the intent that as pupil progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design that stimulates creativity, risk-taking, problem solving and imagination. 
The curriculum also explores how art and design both reflect and shape history, contribute to different cultures and times and how it enriches our lives. There will be opportunities to encourage the exploration of ideas and meaning through the work of a range of artists, craft makers, designers and architects, whilst, also learning about the roles and functions of art.  
Art & design teaching will provide opportunities to develop and extend skills. It engages, inspires, and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. It helps in their understanding and response to the world, whilst providing an opportunity to express their individual interests, thoughts, and ideas. It will enable the children of all abilities to communicate what they see, feel and think, through colour, texture, form, pattern using different materials and processes.  

Key Stage 1 
Pupils should be taught:  

• to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products.  
• to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination.  
• to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space  
• about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.  

Key stage 2  
Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.  
Pupils should be taught:  

• to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas.  
• to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]  
• about great artists, architects and designers in history. 

Implementation 

The implementation of the United Curriculum for Art & Design reflects our broader teaching and learning principles:

For Art & Design in particular:

•Content is always carefully situated within existing schemas. Every unit considers the prior knowledge that is prerequisite for that unit and builds on that knowledge to develop a deeper understanding of that concept. For example, pupils are not expected to be able to produce a representational drawing until after they have explored a range of drawing materials and have had the opportunity to experiment and create using a range of materials, techniques and processes.

  •Vertical concepts are used within lessons to connect aspects of learning. In Art and Design, this is most clearly evidenced in the progression of knowledge and skills linked through the formal elements (line, tone, space, shape, form, colour, pattern and texture). These building blocks of the subject offer opportunities for pupils to develop their knowledge and understanding as well as their practical skills. As a school we work hard to ensure lessons are adapted to enable vertical progression through our rolling programme. 

•Disciplinary knowledge is explicitly taught to pupils and carefully sequenced to ensure pupils are provided with opportunities to practice these skills throughout the curriculum. Pupils are encouraged to engage with big questions about the meaning and purpose of art, as well as exploring the concept of creativity in both a theoretical and very practical way. Our purpose is to allow our pupils to see themselves as artists by developing their innate creativity through building their confidence in knowledge, understanding and skill.

Impact 

• The structure of the art curriculum ensures that children can develop their own knowledge and understanding of the work of artists, crafts people and designers from a range of times and cultures and apply this knowledge to their own work. 
  

• Children learn to understand and apply the key principles of art, line, tone, texture, shape, form, space, pattern, colour, contrast, composition, proportion and perspective. 
  
• Children will achieve age related expectations in art at the end of their cohort year. 
  
• The opportunity for children to refine and develop their techniques over time is support by effective lessons sequencing and progression between year groups. This also supports children in achieving age related expectations at the end of their cohort. 
  
• School displays opportunities reflect the children’s sense of pride in their artwork, and this is also demonstrated by creative outcomes across the wider curriculum. 
  

• The school environment also celebrate also celebrates children’s achievements in art and demonstrates the subject’s high status in school, with outcomes, including opportunities to enhance the school environment, as well as the indoor environment. 
  
• The art & design curriculum contributes to children, personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection. 

Formative assessment is prioritised to ensure the impact of our curriculum is occurring and is focused on whether pupils are keeping up with the curriculum.

In general, this is done through:

Use of sketchbooks and pupil-conferencing

Unless it is unavoidable, pupils use the same sketchbook over multiple years, until it is complete. Sketchbooks contain a record of pupils’ progress over a significant period of time. Talking to pupils about their sketchbooks allows us to assess how much of the curriculum content is secure. These conversations are used to determine whether pupils have a good understanding of the vertical concepts (practical knowledge), and if they can link recently taught content to learning from previous units.

Formative assessment in lessons

There are opportunities for formative assessment in the lessons, and teachers continually adapt their lesson delivery to address misconceptions and ensure that pupils are keeping up with the content.

Low-stakes summative assessment

We also use low-stakes quizzes at the end of the unit to assess whether pupils have learned the core knowledge for that unit. These are also used formatively, and teachers plan to fill gaps and address misconceptions before moving on.