Art

Art at Hamsey School

It is our intent to provide pupils with a high-quality art curriculum, which develops creativity, sets challenges, engages, and inspires children, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art and design.

Our bespoke, curriculum maximises the potential of all of our pupils; intellectually, socially, morally, emotionally and culturally – we believe our curriculum should be relevant and have a strong local resonance with pupils. We use our children’s local understanding to project their minds across the globe.

We see art as a vehicle for creativity and individual expression. It is important to the development of our pupils’ well-being, appreciation of the world, understanding towards, and empathy for others. We aim to give all pupils the confidence to express themselves through a range of chosen mediums and to develop the techniques and knowledge of how materials can be manipulated. (Digital Media, Painting, Collage, Sculpture, Drawing, Printing, Textiles).

Our intent is for all our pupils to have a broad knowledge of a variety of artists (local, national, world-renowned) and to have the opportunity to learn and refine new art and design techniques when using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form, and space. This is embedded across the art curriculum through the use of individual sketchbooks.

We encourage our pupils to have autonomy to select techniques and materials they think are appropriate for a purpose and to create individual responses inspired by their project and the inspirational artists they study.

Implementation 

At Hamsey School, Art and Design is delivered by teaching specific skills and through opportunities for purposeful cross-curricular links. Examples of cross-curricular artwork is very strong throughout the school. EYFS produced clay work for Diwali and Bonfire Night fireworks pictures. KS1 produced work for their studies on the sea by producing their own Hokusai wave art. During our history project, KS2 produced some fantastic printing work based on their work on the Aztecs. 

Art and Design is taught in the Summer term, as a focus for our ‘Create’ project. This is planned by focusing on the 7 areas of art: line, shape, colour, value, space, texture and form. By analysing quality pieces of art by famous artists, the children develop their language and understanding of these areas, before exploring and experimenting with them. 

Art sessions are differentiated and creatively thought out; giving all children, of all different abilities, a chance to reach their potential, with a suitable challenge for all. Children are supported through analysis with key questions and then guided with their experimentations of the key areas using a variety of different mediums. We encourage creativity and individuality when children are creating final pieces of artwork. 

Hamsey School works in collaboration with the three other local schools within our federation; with art specialists working in all the schools. Subject leaders meet and discuss aspects of the art curriculum, sharing good practice and promoting the use of the progression of art skills and ideas for purposeful teaching and learning. 

As the children move through the school, they will develop their skills by teachers planning using the ‘progression of skills’ document which helps to recognise the skills expected for each age range. 

Classrooms are well-resourced, with children working in their dedicated sketchbooks, which move up to the next class with them. We have a fully supplied art resource cupboard. 

Impact  

Staff training sessions for class teachers on how to use the progression of skills document when planning for children in each year group has supported improvement in the differentiation of art sessions. Teachers liaising with our art specialists about which artists to use and different mediums to best-fit skill development has seen the teacher’s enthusiasm for art shine through. 

The display of art is valued greatly within Hamsey School, with every child having their work displayed to feel proud of. All classes end their Create project with an art exhibition, where all the children are involved in setting up and choosing the work they have displayed. These special exhibition days invite all the classes as well as parents and carers to view the children's work. The impact of this is a positive feeling around art and celebrating everyone’s individual pieces. 

At Hamsey School, we value the arts in high regard as we want to develop the confidence of all our children so that they believe that can succeed in anything.  Subject and school leaders monitor the impact of our curriculum provision through completing regular monitoring, which includes listening to the voice of our children. 

In EYFS, Art and Design is often planned around the children’s interests, with children having independent access to a variety of art materials and mediums. Children are encouraged to express their feelings, ideas, thoughts and designs using all 7 areas of art. 

Children are given the opportunity to revisit skills throughout the school year, we can track skills by monitoring work output in sketchbooks and project books, as well as using the Create threshold assessment tool.