Art & Design

Intent

At Osmotherley Primary School we strive to provide a high-quality art and design education, which engages, inspires and challenges pupils,  equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design and develop their sense  of shape, pattern and colour. 

There is a clear progression in the skills and knowledge taught throughout the school and deliberate practice allows children to improve fluency  leading to mastery and an alteration to their long-term memory.  

We encourage our pupils to develop an understanding of art and design techniques. We aim to build an understanding of how art and design  both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation. The children will learn about artists and  designers from a range of cultures and periods in history, and they will learn the necessary vocabulary to articulate their opinions about art and  to evaluate their own artwork. Art and design at Osmotherley School promotes diversity and helps children to express their own personal  identity and culture.  

We recognise that, as a rural school, some pupils have a limited opportunity to visit galleries or attend cultural events so we endeavour to bring artists into the classroom and arrange educational or residential visits with the opportunity to experience art and design first hand.  

We celebrate the art that the children produce in attractive displays and we foster a love of creativity and help every child to feel positive about  their own creative development. 

At KS1 and KS2, children develop knowledge of artists and designers. They become familiar with their work and their ideas, the techniques they  used, their lives, the period when they lived and the impact of their work.  As they reach the end of Year 6, we will ensure that the knowledge and skills they have learnt will prepare them for their future learning in Year 7 by reviewing the Year 7 curriculum within the local secondary schools.

Art and design at Osmotherley will be taught by delivering the statutory requirements for art and design within the national curriculum  Reception children will follow the Early Years Statutory Framework (Sept 2021).  The national curriculum and statutory framework provides the ‘end points’ to children’s learning in each key stage, we have broken these end points down into small steps of progression throughout Reception, Key Stage One, Lower Key Stage Two and Upper Key Stage Two for each strand of art and design in our curriculum progression ladder.

We ensure there is an emphasis on the following 4 key areas:  

• art and design techniques (drawing, painting and sculpture),  
• creating using a variety of materials (design and evaluate/ sketch books),  
• awareness of different types of art and artists, designers and craft workers (similarities and differences and influence)
• vocabulary required to describe and evaluate their own work and the work of others 

Implementation 

At Osmotherley early years children are encouraged to be creative.  Adults teach the knowledge and skills listed in our art and design curriculum progression ladder and ensure children have opportunities for deliberate practise so they reach their end points and are well prepared to begin Key Stage 1.   In Key Stage 1 art and design is taught over a 2-year rolling programme and delivered in blocks of 2 or 3 weeks.  In Key Stage 2 art and design is also taught over a 2 year rolling programme and is taught in a weekly session.     Within both Key Stages, prior learning tasks are set at the beginning of each unit of learning, to establish what has been remembered from previous learning.  The unit is taught in small sequenced steps to ensure that the children’s working memory is not overloaded and opportunities for deliberate practise are planned to ensure that essential knowledge is committed to their long term memories.  Essential knowledge, including key vocabulary, is shared with pupils, parents and carers each term.