Art and Design

The Art curriculum at Christ Church Streatham Primary School allows our learners to communicate what they see, think and feel through their works of Art. Art is a multi-sensory and multi-skilled area of learning; the children use all of their senses in order to respond to their work, the work of others, as well as to create their own unique and individual pieces.

John 10:10 – ‘I come that they may have life and have it in abundance’

Our Intent for Art

Through Art, our learners have a chance to develop their creativity; they are also constantly
developing their awareness of colour, shape, texture, pattern and focus. Within Art sessions, our learners have the opportunity to try out a wide variety of skills, methods and techniques through a wide range of medium. At Christ Church, we believe that high-quality Art lessons will inspire children to think innovatively and develop creative procedural understanding.
Our Art curriculum provides children with opportunities to develop their skills using a range of
media and materials. Children learn the skills of drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles, 3D work and digital art and are given the opportunity to explore and evaluate different creative ideas. Children will be introduced to a range of works and develop knowledge of the styles and vocabulary used by famous artists. The skills they acquire are applied to their cross-curricular topics, allowing children to use their art skills to reflect on and explore topics in greater depth; for example, by sketching historical artefacts in detail, researching geographical locations to support their work on landscape painting or using art as a medium to express emotion and thought to enhance their personal, social and emotional development.

Many areas of art link with mathematical ideas of shape and space; for example when printing repeating patterns and designs and thinking about 3D shapes to support structures. It is paramount that art work be purposeful; be this as a means of expression or to explore the styles of other artists that inspire our own work. Pupils should be clear what the intended outcomes are and have a means to measure their own work against this. In Art, children are expected to be reflective and evaluate their work, thinking about how they can make changes and keep improving. This should be meaningful and continuous throughout the process, with evidence of age-related verbal and written refection. Children are encouraged to take risks and experiment and then reflect on why some ideas and techniques are successful or not for a particular project.

How we Implement our Art Curriculum

Our Art curriculum is taught through a high quality teaching programme called Kapow.

Through our teaching of Art, we aim to stimulate the children’s enthusiasm and curiosity about their surroundings and the wider world. Teachers are provided with an additional three planning days per year on top of their PPA, to plan their curriculum. As part of this planning process, teachers need to plan the following:

A cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth;
challenge questions for pupils to apply their learning in a philosophical/open manner;
trips and visiting experts who will enhance the learning experience;
a means to display and celebrate the pupils’ artwork in their class

Our learners completed work is highly valued, which is evident through the artwork displays
that are created around our school. As a school and in accordance with the National
Curriculum’s expectations, we aim to ensure that all pupils:

produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
become proficient in drawing painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design
techniques
evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical
and cultural development of their art forms

We take every opportunity to enrich curriculum experiences through developing links with outside agencies and experts in order to enrich our Art provision.

Our Art Curriculum

Click here to access the Whole School Art and Design Curriculum Overview

Skills Progression in Art

Click here to access the Art and Design Skills Progression Document

Our Planned Impact

We aim to ensure that children enjoy the creativity and expressivity of art because they are
always keen to learn new skills and build their resilience. The children’s art is very often
cross-curricular and helps them to express feelings and emotions in art, as well as show
their knowledge and understanding of other areas of the curriculum. Art at St Christ Church allows
children to showcase talents that might not come to the fore in other subjects and therefore
builds self-esteem. We hope that moving forward, children will be able to reach out into the
community by exhibiting their artwork locally. We aim to diminish the difference through
teaching a broad and culturally relevant art curriculum tailored to Christ Church learners that will
not only acknowledge the cultural backgrounds of the children, but also further invest in their
cultural capital portfolios with the addition of wider knowledge and experiences of art.