Introduction
Hello and welcome to our Art and Design curriculum page! Here you will find out everything that you need to know about Art and Design and how it is taught at our school. At Southwick the Art and Design lead is Miss Brook (Year 3 teacher).
At Southwick Primary School, the intent of our Art and Design curriculum is to provide children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills, to express their individual interests and ideas, whilst also contributing to the development of the child emotionally, aesthetically, intellectually and socially. The provision of art is designed to challenge the abilities and skills of the children and aims to motivate the children to express their own ideas through creativity. With this in mind, we believe that high quality art education equips children with the skills to explore, experiment, create and invent their own work of art whilst engaging, inspiring and challenging children. As artists, children should be able to critically evaluate their work and the work of others, taking influence from well-known artists and adapting their work accordingly. We aim to develop children’s knowledge of materials by allowing them to experiment freely. Therefore, we are committed to ensuring all pupils have the opportunity to produce creative and imaginative work.
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent van Gogh
At Southwick Primary School our children have the opportunity to explore their ideas and record their experiences, as well as exploring the work of others and evaluate different creative ideas. Through our broad and balanced curriculum the children will become confident and proficient in a variety of techniques including drawing, painting, sculpting, as well as other selected craft skills,e.g. collage, printing, weaving and patterns. We intertwine our art lessons and other curriculum areas by making cross curricular links. The children here at Southwick Primary also develop their knowledge of famous artists, designers and craft makers.
We believe that through the arts curriculum children develop awareness of the world around them, they explore colour, pattern, shape, ideas and they experiment with new ideas. Here at Southwick Primary we expose children to cultural experiences and background knowledge. Through our Art and broad and balanced curriculum we aim to equip them with cultural knowledge to drive them further in their education, careers and social development. At Southwick Primary school art fires children’s imagination and enables our children to communicate what they see, feel and think.
“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” – Edward Hopper
Within Southwick, we follow ‘The Essentials Curriculum’ breaking down concepts into three key milestones. All staff use these to inform and support planning, fostering a progressive and skill based curriculum.