Dore Primary School

Art and Design

At Dore Primary, our art and design curriculum is designed to stimulate and encourage children’s creativity, expressiveness and imagination, and to equip them with the knowledge, language, skills and techniques to be able to create different art pieces. We aim to develop children’s enthusiasm for art and design: to spark creative idea; master a variety of techniques across different mediums of art; to take inspiration from great artists and artisans throughout history, and to understand the impact of art on culture and history.

We want every child to leave Dore as a confident, resourceful, and active citizen—equipped with the art and design knowledge and skills to be creative, inventive and experimental, to make sense of the world and contribute positively to its culture, creativity and wealth. Our curriculum ensures that pupils meet the National Curriculum expectations and are fully prepared for the next stage of their learning in Key Stage 3.

Through a carefully sequenced curriculum from Pre-School to Year 6, children develop a strong foundation in art and design concepts, vocabulary, and skills. They learn to:

• Express feelings and ideas through making marks and models
• Make sense of art and understand the cultural context in which it is made
• Learn the limits and possibilities of materials and media
• Develop proficiency and depth through frequent practice and repetition
• Build on previous learning, refining ideas and developing the ability to represent them

To help children organise their thinking and deepen their understanding, we explore art, craft and design through four key concepts derived from the National Curriculum Art and Design Programmes of Study KS 1 and 2 (2013), Ofsted Research Review: Art and Design (2023) and Development Matters (2023):

 

It is integral to the art and design curriculum across the school that artists, styles or movements from around the world and throughout history are referenced and studied. We work to ensure examples of art and artists are taken from both well-known great artists and less recognised artists, whose art may have been neglected for cultural reasons in the past, as well as those from outside Western art.  

Examples include Fhiona Galloway (England & Canada), Wassily Kandisky (Russia & France 1866 – 1944), Paul Klee (Switzerland 1879 – 1940), Freda Kahlo (Mexico 1907-1954), Pablo Picasso (Spain & France 1881- 1973), Leonardo Da Vinci (Italian 1452- 1519), Edvard Munch (Norway 1863 – 1944), John Singer Sargent (America 1856 – 1925)

Collaborative art work is a vital part of our curriculum. Opportunities for collaborative art work take place in school, enabling children to learn additional skills of communication, discussion, decision making, listening and compromise, when working with others. Examples include:

• Cross year group art projects with local artists, based in the Pastoral provision with SEND children
• Year 3: Outdoor art, inspired by Andy Goldworthy
• Year 4: Whole class collages, inspired by Beatriz Milhazes

Pupils from Year 3 to Year 6 create sketchbooks where they can record their observations, practise techniques, review their work and revisit ideas. Sketchbooks are transferred from year to year, allowing pupils to see their own progression as their proficiency increases.

We aim to bring art and design to life through opportunities for off site visits, meeting guest artists and participation in the annual Sheffield Young Artists competition. In Year 5, for example, pupils visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and participate in artist led workshops.

Even when art isn’t the main subject focus, we ensure there are regular opportunities to practice—to help children revisit and refine skills and knowledge, to allow them to become increasingly proficient.

End points in art lessons can have either convergent goals or divergent goals, and the curriculum provides opportunities for both. Convergent goals are those where the work pupils produce is more fixed, such as mixing secondary or tertiary colours, or follow the same steps to become competent in making a print. Divergent goals are when pupils are enabled to create artwork that is diverse or different from others, for example where they apply different techniques or use different materials, using what they have learned and their own personal and creative thoughts to produce individual work.

Teachers use formative assessment to ensure pupils know what has been taught and to let pupils know what they can do to improve. For practical skills, feedback about the immediate task is important so that pupils can modify and refine the way they are applying their knowledge. Feedback is often immediate, using dialogue between child and teacher while they are carrying out a task. Other forms of assessment (eg written work) and retrieval practise (eg quizzing) are also used to check pupils have retained vocabulary and language used in teaching the elements of art or have remembered information about artists they have studied. Self-assessment and critical reflection are core elements of the art curriculum. Teachers build into their lessons opportunities to teach and practise these skills.

By the time they leave Dore Primary, our pupils are creative, expressive and proficient young artists or designers—ready to continue to be imaginative and creative people in the world. They will have a sound background knowledge and understanding of examples of art from history and around the world and will be ready to contribute to the artistic and cultural life of this country and beyond.