Brookburn’s Intent
At Brookburn, we have designed a curriculum for Art and Design with the intent that our children, from the early years, develop a sense of creativity and self-expression. Pupils produce creative work, developing their technical skills in drawing, painting, sculpture and a range of other art, craft and design techniques. They are taught to evaluate, analyse and think critically about their own and others’ work; and gain a deeper understanding of how Art and Design reflects and shapes our history and how it contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our world.
Our Implementation
Art and design is taught discreetly, interwoven within our wider topic work. Enriched by cross-curricular links to other subjects, children study a range of great artists from different movements, cultures and disciplines, also learning to make links to their own work. Sketchbooks are used as a tool to nurture creativity and form an integral part of children’s development in Art and Design. In their sketchbooks, children are free to explore their ideas, share their opinions and record their experiences – they are encouraged to experiment and are taught that there are no right or wrong answers. In Key Stage 1, children learn how to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination, developing their mastery of techniques and a range of different materials in Key Stage 2.
Year groups 1-6 complete at least two in depth Art and Design projects, which link to their wider topics, creating connections between learning and thus allowing the children to build schema as they learn. Alongside these projects, pupils are also taught skills within each discipline of art and design (drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media etc), building on and developing the techniques they have learnt in previous years. During their time at Brookburn, Children also have the opportunity to work on a project with a local artist, to create a piece of art for display in our school.
In the Early Years there is continuous provision of art and design opportunities: these activities make important contributions to children’s development in the areas of Expressive Arts and Design and Communication and Language. They are also important in children’s Personal, Social and Emotional development. Art is covered in art lessons, continuous provision and as a means of communication and learning in other curriculum areas.
Impact
Children at Brookburn enjoy art and design and relish opportunities to be creative. Their creativity, self-expression and exploratory skills are evident not only in Art and Design, but across the curriculum, where they learn to express their ideas, take risks with and reflect on their learning and developing skills. By the end of Key Stage 2, sketchbooks demonstrate that control and techniques with a range of media have improved significantly through their time at Brookburn and provide a journal to record observations, review and revisit their ideas. We believe that by making links between our wider topics and the teaching of Art and Design, this enriches learning and supports the children making connections across different areas of education, helping us bring the curriculum to life with exciting opportunities, which contextualise teaching in a fun way for children.
