Art

Intent

At Earlsmead, we support children to develop artistic skills and understanding by experimenting with techniques and developing the confidence to express themselves creatively. We aim to inspire children by introducing them to a diverse range of artists and artworks, offering plenty of purposeful opportunities to make their own art, as well as experiencing art in galleries and workshops led by professional artists.

Implementation

All children have a weekly art lesson in which they explore and learn to appreciate a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, drawing and printing. They progress by building up skills, knowledge and ideas over a sequence of work, often culminating in the creation of a final piece using their own ideas. In Key Stage 2, children use sketchbooks to try out new techniques and to improve existing skills as part of the creative process. Children learn to critically appreciate art, in order to develop their own sense of themselves as artists.

Impact

Children are guided by teachers to self assess and critically evaluate their own work, as an important part of the designing and creating process. Teachers’ assessment is based on four key areas: making, ideas, knowledge and evaluation. Samples of work and sketchbooks are collected each term to measure progress against the objectives for each year group, as outlined on our whole school progression map.