Art & Design

Art Vision Statement:

We believe in ‘process over product’. Through Art and Design, we enable all learners, including the most disadvantaged, to develop creativity, confidence and critical thinking through exploration, experimentation and self-expression.

The key purpose of Art and Design at Shebbear Community School is to:

• Equip children with the artistic skills and knowledge needed to express themselves creatively and communicate ideas visually.
• Foster curiosity, imagination and resilience through an exploratory and reflective approach to art-making.
• Develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours that provide children with a secure foundation in artistic practice and appreciation.
• Encourage children to value creativity, diversity and cultural understanding through the study of artists, craftspeople and designers from a range of backgrounds and traditions.
• Promote confidence in experimenting, taking risks and learning from mistakes as part of the creative process.

By the End of Year 6, We Want All Children to Be Able To:

• Draw with increasing accuracy, control and confidence using a range of materials and techniques.
• Use sketchbooks effectively to explore, develop and refine ideas.
• Create artwork using a variety of media, including drawing, painting, printing, sculpture, textiles and digital art.
• Mix and apply colour with purpose, understanding how artists use colour to create different effects.
• Use a range of tools and materials safely and effectively.
• Discuss and evaluate their own work and the work of others using appropriate artistic vocabulary.
• Understand how art reflects and influences cultures, communities and historical periods.
• Demonstrate resilience, creativity and independence throughout the artistic process.
• Understand that artists develop and refine ideas over time through experimentation and reflection.

Our Art and Design curriculum is carefully sequenced to develop children’s knowledge, skills and behaviours over time. Through opportunities to explore, experiment, create and reflect, pupils build confidence in their artistic abilities while developing an appreciation of art from a range of cultures, periods and perspectives.

By nurturing creativity and encouraging individual expression, we ensure that all children leave Shebbear Community School with the artistic skills, cultural awareness and confidence to engage with the visual world around them.

Art and Design – Two Year Cycle

Cross Curricular and Enrichment Opportunities: Art lends itself well to cross curricular opportunities. Whenever they are appropriate and link with the learning, teachers will look to give the children opportunities to produce pieces of artwork, using the skills they have developed, in a variety of media. As an example, pupils produced ‘creation story’ artwork based on their RE learning. Through computing lessons, children have the opportunity to develop their skills in digital artwork.

Each year, we have specific opportunities to enrich art and design teaching. In the autumn term the whole school works together to produce a harvest display which is shared with parents/carers in our harvest festival and celebrates our agricultural heritage. Pupils also produce craft items which are sold at our Christmas fair in December. During the summer term, the children produce pieces of artwork which are displayed at the Shebbear Flower and Art Show. It gives the children a rare opportunity to display their work to the wider public.  We also work with the Burton Art Gallery, giving further opportunity for children’s work to be exhibited to a larger audience.

In the summer term, we have an art week which has a different focus each year.  We also use art week to work specifically with textiles and 3D designs. Often, these items take slightly longer to produce so the focussed week allows a greater degree of flexibility. In the final couple of weeks of the school term the children spend a morning in their new classrooms. During this time, they each produce a portrait. This acts as an assessment of their developing skills in drawing and allows the school and the children themselves to see the progress they have made.

This art rolling programme was developed to increase the cultural capital of our children and expose them to art from a range of times, locations and cultures. The artists studied include a diverse group of people chosen from a list of the most influential artists according to the Tate Gallery. The progression of skills is designed to ensure progress from year R to 6 in methods, techniques and materials used.

Like other subjects in our curriculum, we want the children to enjoy their art lessons and have the opportunity to be creative. Similarly, we want the children to develop an understanding of the great artists and their works and appreciate that it is an important record of change over time.