expressive arts
Expressive Arts have the capacity to enrich all areas of a curriculum, by teaching children means of self-expression and confidence in their own abilities. One great benefit of Expressive Arts is that children will most often have a finished product to show for their learning - a song, a dance, a drawing - which gives them concrete evidence of their progress, which can sometimes be difficult to come by in other curriculum areas.
Expressive Arts teach children to be resourceful, imaginative, and learn an array of transferable skills. Having an outlet for expression also has amazing mental health benefits and encourages an atmosphere of mutual respect for other creative areas. Through engaging in artistic activities through Expressive Arts experiences, children will gain a deeper understanding of the feelings and emotions of themselves and others, as well as gain the tools to express these things in a creative way.
What’s more, Expressive Arts learners will develop an understanding of and appreciation for art and culture, both at home and worldwide. This is particularly important in a country like Scotland, which has a rich culture of art and music.
ART
The Art & Design curriculum at Kellands has been designed to give children as many opportunities as possible to develop their artistic talents and interests, alongside lots of experience of using a variety of tools to produce their artwork.
Visual elements (line / shape / space / tone / colour / pattern / texture and form) are developed through all skills (printing / drawing / painting / 3D objects / design process) by class teachers and specialist teachers and built upon in each school year.
Pupils will explore how tools such as paint, pastels, charcoal, pencils, pens, crayons, collage and clay can help to create artwork with increasing detail and depth as they progress through our school.
Pupils are encouraged to contribute to the planning of their learning experiences in Art at Kellands. Interests are taken into account and desires to improve skills with certain tools are built into the lessons. Their confidence in art abilities is built up by breaking down the design process of any piece of art into manageable stages, while also discussing and reflecting on how we can develop our work further. It becomes a team effort to achieve our very best.
The love of Art at Kellands is clear to anyone walking through the school and pupils’ work is displayed proudly on the walls of all of our Units.
Here are some examples of our work:
MUSIC
At Kellands School, we believe that children should be given the opportunity to take part in practical music sessions to help develop their knowledge and understanding of music. Children at all levels are introduced to a variety of musical genres and actively participate in singing, listening, composing and performing activities. They explore sounds and musical concepts, develop their vocal and instrumental skills and create musical ideas and compositions. This active participation helps the children to develop an awareness and understanding of the inter-related dimensions of music i.e. pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, structure, texture and dynamics. They also begin to understand the way in which music is constructed and can use this knowledge in their own improvisations and compositions.
Through our listening activities, all pupils are encouraged to listen attentively, comment on some of the inter-related dimensions of music and express their opinions on what they hear. From first level onwards, our pupils begin to keep a Listening Log to record their comments. Children working at first and second level study basic music theory and are given opportunities to develop and extend their performing skills on tuned percussion and ukulele. They also actively explore music technology using Chrome Music lab and digital audio workstations such as Garageband.
Our music curriculum follows the requirements outlined in the Curriculum for Excellence and activities are planned to ensure that new skills build on and further develop the skills taught in previous year groups. Our lessons can incorporate independent tasks, paired and group work, improvisation, teacher-led performances, elements of movement and dance, as well as cross curricular links with other areas of learning.
Due to the subjective nature of music, assessment is mostly informal and can include conversation, oral feedback, recorded performances and, where appropriate, written work. Key learning objectives are shared that are used to assess children’s progress throughout each unit. Recordings are often played back in class, giving the pupils opportunities to reflect on their work, self-assess and give suggestions on how they can improve their performance.
At Kellands Primary school, we are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music. It is a means of personal expression and plays a significant role in the personal development of each child. It also has a unique ability to bring people together. We hope children will leave Kellands with happy memories of their musical experience that they will want to continue to develop and enjoy.
