WELCOME to Art at WHA
At Western House Academy, we believe that art is a powerful medium capable of healing, inspiring and transcending boundaries. As stated in the research and review series, a high-quality art education can build pupils’ ability to ‘appreciate and interpret what they observe, communicate what they think and feel, or make what they imagine and invent’. Children explore new concepts, built on prior learning and gain knowledge through planning, making and building. We encourage our children to use the Arts as a way to show individuality, creativity and personality.
Our Art curriculum is creative and challenging, sets out how pupils can ‘get better’ at the subject, develop practical knowledge, theoretical knowledge and disciplinary knowledge along with building confidence in their own ability. Progression is measured through the achievement of knowledge and skills covered which are visible in our exceptional sketch books. Throughout the year, pupils explore a wide range of mediums. In the Autumn term, we teach sketching, charcoal and watercolour. In the Spring term, we teach digital Art, sculpture/glass painting/collage and in the Summer term, we teach printing and learn about great artists. We use Kapow Primary for inspiration and resources.
The 4 key aspects of our curriculum are: values, knowledge, equality and experience.
Values are developed by the fact that they underpin everything we do. Many learning tasks or experiences will need curiously, ambition, positivity, resilience and honesty, whilst others further develop teamwork, respect, tolerance, courage and friendship. These are referred to during lessons.
Developing Knowledge - We focus on three main aspects of knowledge
Practical knowledge that enables pupils to develop practical knowledge through art and design and make choices based on what they know about the limits and possibilities of materials and media.
Theoretical knowledge that enables pupils to make connections between art’s past, present and future and Disciplinary knowledge that enables pupils to participate in discussions about big ideas in art.
Equality is an important aspect of our curriculum and we explore art work from diverse genders and Artists with a diverse background so that children are able to recall both male and female artists from British and diverse background. Art is often an area where children excel and our high curriculum allows for them to show their creativity.
Experience is developed through the use of different media like charcoal, sketching, water colours, glass painting, clay, collage, printing etc. When possible experience is also linked to the learning completed in other areas of the curriculum. For example Year 3 studied the topic of Extreme Earth in Geography and were able to create digital animations of volcanoes erupting in Digital Art. Year 4 created charcoal drawings of the rainforest foliage while studying the Rainforest in geography.
