^{At Cullercoats Primary School we offer our children a broad, balanced and bespoke skills-based Art experience where children are valued and encouraged to grow and develop their artistic and creative abilities from the very start of their holistic education journey.}

Subject Lead - Mr Jonny Reed

INTENT

At Cullercoats Primary School we offer our children a broad, balanced and bespoke skills-based Art experience where children are valued and encouraged to grow and develop their artistic and creative abilities from the very start of their holistic education journey. This begins with an experimental and exploratory focus in EYFS followed by progressive Art skills development and refinement year on year through to Year 6.  

We draw inspiration from our immediate local and regional landscape and artistic heritage, from Winslow Homer and the Cullercoats Artists’ Colony through to collaborating with local artist Joanne Wishart. We also visit local Art venues such as the Laing art gallery and collaborate with experts who provide both hands-on workshops and gallery experiences for our pupils.   

We are constantly looking to add innovative new Art experiences which will excite and enrich our children’s own individual creative learning experiences and artistic development and which in turn also inspire and enthuse our staff and their subsequent Arts delivery. 

IMPLEMENTATION

Skills and content

Each half-termly block covers one of six specific Art Skills areas- Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Printing, Textiles and Mixed Media. Teachers take inspiration a variety of well renowned artists from all over the world, explore their interesting lives, the impact they made and focus on the techniques and skills that they gave rise to. The children also begin to explore elements such as Line, Shape and Form, Tone, Colour, Texture and Space. 

Coverage and skills development

Each unit is always linked to at least one named and relevant professional artist in that field, with scope for teachers to always adapt, add to and evolve our Art curriculum for continuous refinement. Clear and simple Art curriculum overviews create awareness of where each year-group’s skills coverage and content feed into our whole-school Art skills development which is built upon year on year. 

Creative learning 

Our children are given opportunities to experiment and learn, make positive individual choices and engage in creative risk-taking to express themselves, explore new media and to experience different materials and creative applications in Art. Our children are encouraged to explore, practice and refine key artistic techniques to build skills, proficiency, individuality and confidence in their own creative abilities as they grow. 

Art is inclusive and offers unique differentiated outcomes from common starting points and solid skills-based teaching. Our teaching of Art is underpinned by Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, ensuring that learning is broken into small steps, supported by regular review, explicit modelling, guided practice, regular checking for understanding, and opportunities for independent practice. 

IMPACT

Our aim is to support and encourage our pupils to become confident young artists with a range of artistic skills, creative confidence and individuality of style. 

Our pupils enjoy individual freedom of creative expression, having time and space to experiment, taking time to try out new media and to refine their techniques and application of skills to produce a range of rewarding high-quality artwork of their own to keep and display.  

Art Appreciation

Over time they develop a growing appreciation of Art and knowledge of the works of a variety of local and world-renowned artists and movements through each linked Art skills unit. We also encourage use of simple specialist Art vocabulary to enable them to articulate what they are creating in Art, to help explain how they are making it and to express their choices and ways of working appropriately. 

Display

Children’s artwork is displayed in and around school to celebrate their creativity and to encourage all children to produce high-quality artwork to the best of their individual abilities. Also to see how they can each contribute to a visually positive and attractive learning environment. We will develop our skills and display our work in books and celebrate it on the Seesaw App. 

We also display our work in a bespoke gallery during our Heritage week where parents are welcomed into school to visit and help celebrate the hard work that the children have put in. This helps to further instil a sense of pride in our work and our local area. 

Evidence of skills progression

Evidence of high-quality work in can be seen in our books and displays and on the Seesaw app, demonstrating pupils’ increasingly secure and deepening understanding of the projects and processes.  Our pupil voice shows that children enjoy art and are positively engaged in their learning. Progress is consistent across all year groups, reflecting effective teaching and a well-structured curriculum. 

At the end of each year children are assessed against the skills and understanding they have developed through the year. 

Our young artists receive a broad and varied creative Art curriculum experience at Cullercoats which is a solid foundation for future learning and creative enjoyment for life.  

SKILLS MAPPING DOCUMENTS