Art in Action
We offer a range of topics, covering all aspects of knowledge and skills of the cornerstones curriculum and the skills required to meet the aims of the national curriculum. The intent is to ensure all pupils produce creative, imaginative work. 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. 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. Children will also develop their knowledge of famous artists, designers and craft makers. Children will also develop their interest and curiosity about art and design through a series of lessons offering skills progression, knowledge progression and offering children the opportunity to ask questions and demonstrate their skills in a variety of ways. The topics offer the chance for children to develop their emotional expression through art to further enhance their personal, social and emotional development and cultural appreciation.
The aims of teaching Art & Design in our school are:
- To 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.
- As pupils progress through school, they should begin to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
- To produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
- To become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
- To evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
- To know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers
At St Margaret Mary our aims are:
• To ensure full entitlement and access to high quality education within a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum;
• To identify barriers to learning as early as possible;
• To reach high levels of achievement for all so that children can reach their full potential;
• To meet individual needs through a wide range of provision, providing differentiation that aims to remove any barriers to learning;
• Where children are underachieving and/or identified as having special educational needs, the school provides for these additional needs in a variety of ways and might use a combination of these approaches to address targets identified for individual pupils:
• High quality teaching is our first step in responding to pupils who have SEN. This will be differentiated for individual pupils.
• Other small group work;
• Class and individual support where possible;
• Further differentiation of resources.
Any children with identified SEND, have an EHCP or in receipt of pupil premium funding may have work additional to and different from their peers in order to access the curriculum dependent upon their needs. As well as this, our school offers a demanding and varied curriculum, providing children with a range of opportunities in order for them to reach their full potential and consistently achieve highly from their starting points.
Art and Design is taught through our Cornerstones Curriculum projects and is planned to ensure progression of skills and knowledge. In EYFS and KS1 children cover a ‘Mix It’ project where children recap key skills and knowledge such as primary and secondary colours, colour mixing and tints tones and shades. This is then revisited in Year 5 during the 'Tints, Tones and Shades' project work, but colour theory is revisited throughout the curriculum.
At St Margaret Mary, all children from Year One upwards have their own Art book which they build upon and add to throughout each year. This allows the children to reflect upon their work, jot down ideas and create visuals. At St Margaret Mary we are developing our use of sketchbooks, encouraging children to move away from thinking of it as a book for ‘final pieces’ and start to see it as a ‘Sketch Book’ where they can explore, develop and create with individuality. Children are encouraged to use, but not replicate, the art work that is being explored.
During Key Stage One there is a primary focus on children using colour, pattern, line and shape to develop their ideas. They learn about and compare work by famous artists and begin to create their own artwork inspired by this. This then progresses as the children move into Key Stage Two where they develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity.
Through Cornerstones, Art units are designed to be ‘companion projects’ to coincide with a wider project base. For example, a project in Y6 is ‘Maafa’ and their companion art module is ‘Trailer Blazers and Barrier Breakers’. This project teaches children about significant black artist, including cultural, political and artistic elements. In Y3, one project is called ‘Rocks, Relics and Rumbles’ and their companion art project in ‘Ammonites’ where they look in detail at the Fibonacci sequence and create Ammonite drawings, prints and sculptures. In Y1 their main project is ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ where their companion art project is ‘Street View’. This project teaches children about artwork depicting streets and buildings and focuses on the work of the American pop artist, James Rizzi. They create a 3-D mural based on Rizzi's work. Each unit comes with a knowledge organiser which lays out the knowledge needed for that unit, key vocabulary and the skills children will be learning in the unit. The knowledge organisers run from Year 1 to Year 6.
In EYFS, Art is taught as part of the units in the Cornerstones Curriculum and has a focus on mixing colours, exploring materials and mark making in line with the EYFS development matters programme to ultimately be able to achieve the Early Learning Goal of ‘using and exploring a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function’.
Children get the opportunity to be creative through different whole school projects throughout the year including art competitions, community projects and studying and analysing art through our RE curriculum. Art holds a strong emphasis on extra-curricular projects such as Art and Craft club in KS1, Animation club and Art Club in KS2. Our Eco group also created upcycled murals for the Queens Jubilee in 2022 and in 2024 Y6 produced recycled ocean animals to raise awareness of pollution in our oceans and seas. Our children have also created online art galleries for various different purposes and themes. For example, the diamond jubilee in 2022, the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022 and the coronation of King Charles in 2023. In 2024 we held 2 art galleries in our school hall; one celebrating the feats of the Sacred Heart one celebrating local Cumbrian artists. Our children's work has been features in galleries in our city including at Carlisle station, Tuli House and Carlisle Library. The children have also been involved in making a carpet for a Corpus Christi Procession in the Year of the Eucharist, which involved the whole school and was showcased to the community and Parish.
Art and design learning is loved by teachers and pupils across our school. Teachers have high expectations where quality of evidence can be presented in a variety of ways. Children are given opportunities to explore art and designs from different cultures and can appreciate the historical and culture background, increasing their cultural capital. All children use technical vocabulary accurately and pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified. Children are confident using a range of materials and can talk about how art and artists have influenced their designs. Children improve their enquiry skills and inquisitiveness about the world around them, and their impact through art and design on the world. Children will become more confident in analysing their work and giving their opinion on their own and other works of art. Children show competences in improving their resilience and perseverance by continually evaluating and improving their work. All children in school can speak confidently about their art and design work and their skills and can showcase these to the wider community.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
• Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the topic is taught.
• Summative teacher assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
• Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Moderation cluster meetings where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers and schools to understand their children’s work
• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
• Peer and self-review in art books for each piece of work from Y1-Y6.