At Hylands Primary School we believe that art stimulates creativity, imagination and inventiveness. We believe that art gives our pupils the skill, concepts and knowledge necessary for them to express responses to ideas and experiences. It fires their imagination and encourages creativity across the curriculum.
Our Art curriculum, which stems from the National Curriculum and our topics, encourages the children to communicate what they see, feel and think. Children should feel safe to experiment with their ideas, their use of colour, texture, form, pattern and different materials and processes. Self-evaluation of work is encouraged, and children are taught how to be resilient to achieve their goals – to believe that everyone’s efforts are valued.
We use sketchbooks to record experiences and to help the children develop their artistic ability. We encourage children to work on their own, and collaboratively, and to be proud of their artistic achievements.
‘Art is not just a subject to learn, but an activity that you can practise with your hands, your eyes, your whole personality’. Quentin Blake
Throughout the year children are encouraged to show their creativity outside of the Curriculum by entering both national and local competitions, for example in the past we have entered ‘Images of my Mother' and ‘Design a Christmas Bauble’ - we have been successful in both these and other competitions.
We encourage our children to visit art galleries; Year 4 visited the National Gallery to explore the paintings of Monet, studied as part of their topic. Suffice to say, the look of wonder and astonishment on childrens’ faces when they realised that they were looking at the actual painting that they had recently recreated was priceless.
‘Miss, miss, that’s just like my painting, I can’t believe it’s real!’
At Hylands Primary School we will always continue to encourage our pupils to believe in their creative abilities, to continuously strive to improve on their work and have the confidence to be able to say:
‘This is my work – and it’s great!’