Subject Intent
The Art curriculum at North Town School and Nursery will challenge and engage children and nurture their innate artistic talents, imagination and creativity through a hands-on experiential approach. Children will learn vocabulary and analysis skills that will enable them to be confident art critics and also enhance their self-reflection and peer assessment. The children will have fun experimenting with a range of techniques and media, empowering them to express their ideas and emotions through art. Exploring the life and works of great artists and designers will provide children with an enhanced understanding of past and present cultures. The range of transferable skills within art and design will nurture confident individuals, who can positively contribute as local and global citizens.
- Children will engage with art as a method for communication of ideas, concepts, cultural identity, emotions and personality. They will develop their self-expression and imagination as they learn and master a range of art techniques.
- Children will learn and use art vocabulary to enhance their understanding of artworks, art concepts and contexts. They will become confident in applying art vocabulary as a tool to analyse and evaluate, their artworks, their peer’s artworks and those of great artists and designers.
- The life and creative work of famous and local artists and designers will be studied and children will gain an understanding of the historical and cultural developments of their creative works. They will also confidently critically analyse the artworks and evaluate the media and methods used. The work of artists and designers will inspire their own experimentation with a variety of art techniques and media.
- Self and peer-assessment skills will be explicitly taught and will enable children to provide thoughtful, detailed and specific feedback in a respectful and supportive manner, to enable progression of skills and development of ideas.
- Children will build their resilience and confidence, to enable them to practice, improve and master art skills. They will understand how this along with so many art skills is applicable to other subjects and areas of life outside of school now and in the future.
- Children will use art as a window to explore and celebrate other cultures and periods in history, they will understand how historical and cultural contexts shaped the artworks of that time or place and through the artworks and artists they will learn about specific important events, movements and people.
- As global citizens, the children will use art to celebrate and explore different cultures from around the world and will learn and practice art techniques associated with these cultures.
- Children will explore using a range of art techniques including: drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles craft and digital methods with a range of media. They will develop their mastery of all art skills through continuous critical reflection and evaluation of their own work and their peer’s work. Children will integrate art skills with modern technologies and traditional techniques.
- Children will create sketchbooks to record their ideas, express their imaginative responses, practise a variety of art techniques and develop initial ideas. They will be armed with the knowledge and skills needed to empower them to choose their own preferred methods and media to create a final artworks to express their ideas or respond to a brief.
- Children will celebrate their own and each other’s work and enjoy sharing it with their families and the wider community through art exhibitions.