Art & Design Overview
At Sandling Primary School, our Art & Design curriculum is thoughtfully designed to foster our Sandling PRACTISE values. Through topics such as sculpting, printing and digital media, our pupils become problem solvers by navigating artistic challenges. The curriculum builds resilience as students learn from mistakes and refine their techniques. Our curriculum encourages adventurous exploration of different media and styles, and we promote creativity and self-expression. Collaborative projects enhance teamwork, while individual tasks develop independence. By critiquing and discussing artworks, students gain self-assurance and confidence. Exploring diverse artistic influences and self-reflection fosters esteem, helping students to appreciate their own and others' artistic journeys.
What our pupils say about their Art & Design learning
| “I really enjoyed learning about Kath Kidston, she does flower prints. We then made our own flower prints similar to Kath Kidston, we used our fingers to print the stems. I used silver, pink, silver, pink for the colours because she repeated pictures and colour." Eve – Year 1 |
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“We learnt about collage artwork and looked at some of Pablo Picasso’s collage artwork. When he felt sad, he normally used the colour blue in his artwork. My collage was an under the water scene." Abbie – Year 3 |
| “I enjoyed learning about pointillism. We had to create lots of dots for our pointillism artwork which was inspired by Georges Seurat. We had to think about the colours that we chose to use, and ensure that they complemented each other." Eloise – Year 4 |
| “In one of our art units, we completed screen printing in the style of Esther Mahlangu. We had to cut out shapes on card, and then place them on a screen and add paint. This artwork was influenced from South Africa, as colour is an important part of South African culture." Edie – Year 5 |
| “My favourite art unit this year was hyperrealism. We learnt about the artwork of Paul Cadden and then we had to plan and create our own hyperrealism artwork. We took photos of things that interested us, and then we drew pictures with lots of detail to create hyperrealism artwork. It was really fun." Tom – Year 6 |
Within our art & design curriculum, we break our learning down into the following three domains:
- Practical Knowledge
How to create art, craft and design, for example by learning the methods and techniques that artists, craft-makers and designers use. This knowledge is necessary for our children when they make and create art e.g. when drawing, painting or sculpting). It allows them to make choices based on what they know about the limits and possibilities of materials and media.
- Theoretical Knowledge
This enables pupils to make connections between art’s past, present and future. It develops our children’s surface-level knowledge of dates and key facts about artists and their artwork, but also supports a much deeper understanding for our children so that they know about meaning, interpretations, processes and connections across artwork through time.
- Disciplinary Knowledge
How artists and designers study, comment on and form judgements about art e.g. asking and answering questions such as, ‘What is the purpose of this piece of artwork?’ and ‘How does this design affect the lives of its users?’. It also enables our children to see how contradictory ideas about an artist or piece of artwork can co-exist.
Concepts
We teach these three domains through a curriculum which progresses through concepts such as Drawing, Digital Media and Culture. These concepts ensure that children’s practical, theoretical and disciplinary knowledge is carefully planned and is built upon as they move from Year R to Year 6. See our ‘progression of concepts in art’ document for more information.
Whole School Long Term Plan
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Art Long Term Plan.pdf | Download |
Year Group Medium Term Plans
Please contact the Art & Design Lead via the school office if you have any further questions.
