Intent

At Pinewood Infant School we believe that Art is inclusive and encourages creativity and curiosity for all children. We believe that Art should be a stimulating and enjoyable experience for all children, allowing them to express themselves through a piece of artwork, which has been produced individually or collaboratively. At Pinewood, we want our children to have the confidence and freedom to experiment with their own ideas, through different mediums. Through the use of sketchbooks, children at Pinewood will have the opportunity to evaluate, analyse and re-visit their work and develop resilience by making and learning from mistakes. All children should leave our school with: a set of basic skills in drawing and painting, sculpture, textiles, printmaking and ICT; an appreciation of work by a range of artists and an inquisitive nature meaning that they are capable of producing a piece of creative artwork which they and others can be proud of.

Implementation

At Pinewood Infant School the Art curriculum consists of art objectives taught through Topic Based Learning lessons. Art and Design units are taught each half term. Every half term the children build on their drawing and painting skills and then work on another Art and Design element. We encourage children to express themselves and produce high-quality pieces of work in a variety of media that they can be proud of. Pinewood’s Art curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and supported by Hampshire County Council’s aims and objectives, using an artist and their work as a stimulus. The units of Art covered throughout KS1 are: drawing and painting, sculpture, print making, textiles, collage and Art through ICT. Children at Pinewood are given opportunities to discuss, critique, appreciate and evaluate their own and the work of professional artists.

Pupils are taught:

1. To create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas.
2. To explore different media of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay].
3. To develop their understanding of the appropriate art and design techniques and tools to use.
4. To appreciate works of art from great artists.

As a school we participate in a local painting competition, Rushmoor in Bloom, to promote creativity and raise the profile of painting in our school

Impact

We strive to ensure that our children’s attainment is in line with or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all our children. At Pinewood Infant School we can judge the success of our Art curriculum in the following ways:

• Using a clear progression of skills.
• Pupil conferencing – are children happy, engaged, motivated to do well and challenged within the subject. Are children able to clearly express their opinions about Art? Do the children know the names of professional artists and their work?
• Sketchbooks – do they show a clear learning journey, progression of skills and opportunities to revisit and evaluate work?