Mayfield Primary SchoolArt & Design: Vision
ART & DESIGN LEADER
Mrs McFarlane
.jpg)
'ALWAYS START WITH WHY'
What is Art & Design?
How do artists work and learn?
We have set out in these two website pages how we consider these questions with our children by mapping out and delivering a clear, consistent and challenging curriculum for our children to meet their needs. You can download copies of every central document at the base of the relevant pages (VISION or CURRICULUM OVERVIEW) in PDF format. The subject guide and policy itself can be found at the base of this page.
To take a look at our curriculum overview page CLICK HERE.
Our Vision For Art & Design
At Mayfield, we value our creative curriculum. We believe art can have a powerful and positive effect on children, helping them to become confident, creative learners who are able to express their individual interests, thought and ideas. We believe that a high-quality art and design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. We encourage children to learn from and be inspired by the work of great artists from different cultures and understand the contribution art has made to society, both past and present. As pupils progress, we support them to be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. Through art work in the classroom, the children at Mayfield have the opportunity to develop their skills in drawing, sculpture, painting, printing and collage. These areas are developed continuously throughout the school from early years through to year six and the children have the opportunity to revisit skills from previous years before learning new ones. Developing skills in drawing is given a high status and children are encouraged to draw not only in art lessons, but across the curriculum. We encourage children to express individuality in their work and to keep their own personalised sketch books where they can explore ideas, be inventive and take risks. When children leave Mayfield, we expect them to have a wide range of well-developed art skills in the five areas of our curriculum that they can then build on and develop further as they continue in their education.
How We Plan For, And Teach, Art & Design
At Mayfield, art is taught through a central project each term in each year group. Teachers plan sequences of lessons across the project that will build on and develop the children’s skills culminating in a final piece. The skills and knowledge that children will develop throughout each art unit are mapped across the year groups and across the school to ensure progression. The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the context of the artwork, as well as the artists that they are learning about and being inspired by. This enables links to other curriculum areas, with the children developing a considerable knowledge of individual artists as well as individual works and art movements. A similar focus on skills means that children are given opportunities to express their creative imagination, as well as practise and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, sculpture, painting, printing and collage. Whole-school events and competitions ensure that art is given high status in the curriculum with the Art & Design Leader central in their practical support and training for class teachers and supporting adults through school. Mayfield has identified an Art & Design Support Teaching Assistant who is available as an aide for children and adults to support the point of learning and to deploy her own expertise in this subject.
Art & Design’s presence is maintained through these adult leads, the profile of reward, achievement and celebration through the school year and through the role of Student Subject Champions identified across school to provide feedback and consider achievement through a learner’s eye. The environment maintains a consistent presence for Art & Design across school - recognising the value we place upon art achievements and future aspiration. This includes our Art Studio which has been created for the specific delivery of the subject with relevant resources on hand at all times. Art & Design continues via our enrichment, wider curriculum opportunity: Art Club which runs during the year. Rewards have a specific eye upon personal progress rather than summative attainment. We also maintain the profile of computing through Subject Celebrations and Subject Achievement Displays.
How We Assess Art & Design Learning
The impact of our art curriculum can clearly been seen in the children’s sketchbooks which pass on with them to the following year group. The new Art Studio guides and supports the children's learning as they move through their learning projects. The opportunity to evaluate and reflect on the learning is planned throughout the project using Brain Gym to enable the children to see how their learning is progressing and where they need to take it next. On completion of the project of work, the children are able to self-assess against the success criteria established during the learning journey. Class teachers then use the children’s research and preparatory work, along with the final piece in order to make a summative judgement as to whether each child is working at the expected standard and this contributes to an end of year judgement - which involves using the Key Milestone Assessment Document.
Teachers continually evaluate children’s learning through a further range of formative opportunities. Big Questions are prompted and carefully positioned to aide teachers with this. Each unit has the opportunity to Quiz and Self-Quiz to assess the retention of new knowledge and vocabulary. We also use visual Project Posters to aid memory retention and utilise these within our Brain Gym activities.
How We Record Outcomes In Art & Design
Ways of demonstrating progress and outcomes must be adaptable to suit the needs of learners and the requirements of the subject. Therefore each subject has its own bespoke way of gathering evidence from learners - otherwise recording work becomes a barrier to learning rather than a chance to celebrate children’s achievements and specialist skills and knowledge in areas where they may otherwise excel.
In Art & Design, children’s work is gathered in:
Art & Design Big Books (Per Cohort) & Children’s Individual Sketchbooks (Plus final outcomes recorded and displayed in varying appropriate formats.)
**************************
Artists & Designers Vocabulary
A core Artists and Designers Vocabulary has been created for the children across school. The vocabulary is progressive from EYFS onwards and at all times retains vocabulary previously introduced. We have chosen this language based upon the perspective of being an artist and designer considering the broader concepts and skills ahead of ‘project specific terms’. The vocabulary is present around the Art Studio.
Project based terminology is gathered for each class within a specified, visual area of the Art Studio. It is not expected that these terms are permanently added to the vocabulary for artists and designers, although we clearly aspire for the children to hold onto terms/names in order to aid their ability to discuss their learning. It is expected that the children maintain and use their core Artists and Designers Vocabulary above all else.
The core Artists and Designers Vocabulary can be found on the Termly Planning Documents.
Here are examples of the two kinds of vocabulary we have identified. Artists & Designers Vocabulary: media; pattern; darken; mix and Specific Project Terminology/Names: Piet Mondrian; France.
********************************
Art & Design Enrichment Opportunity:
Art Club as part of our beyond hours offer.
*******************************
My latest work as Art & Design Leader.....
* I have been busy refining our art curriculum with a particular focus upon the artists and designers we study within each learning unit.
* I am currently developing our new Art Studio as a central base for our artwork across school.
* I am currently reviewing the children's sketchbooks across school and how these are used within a particular learning unit and how these can show progression over time.