Subject Leader: K. Just

Introduction

At St Mary's we love the chance to get creative and engage with a range of arts, crafts and media to show our love of art. Each class completes three units of art a year (one per term) where we get to explore and create with different artistic media. Art is taught as a block, within each school term. During the block, teaching and learning is dedicated solely to art, allowing children to become immersed in the subject and dive into exploring an artistic skill, building on prior artistic knowledge. Each unit that children cover introduces them to new artists, teaches them specific unit skills and shows progression, culminating in a final piece of artwork, allowing children to explore, develop and showcase their own creativity.

Intent 

At St. Mary's, we believe that art is a vital part of children’s education and has a significant and valuable role in the broad and balanced curriculum we offer our pupils. Art contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection. The art curriculum will develop children’s critical abilities and understanding of their own and others’ cultural heritages through studying a diverse range of male and female artists, spanning a range of artistic styles and periods in history.

Understanding of the main elements of art and design will be developed by providing a curriculum which will enable children to reach their full potential. We teach an artists and skills-based art curriculum, which gives opportunities for children to express their creative imagination as well as practise and develop mastery in the key processes of art: drawing, painting, printing, and sculpture, all whilst studying a range of contemporary and classical artists.