Art & Design

Welcome to Art and Design at Burton C of E Primary School.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” (Pablo Picasso).

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge” (Albert Einstein).

At Burton Primary School, we value and are committed to providing all children with the learning opportunities to engage in Art and Design. Art and Design offers an invaluable medium where all children are able to develop skills, explore experiences, respond and communicate through visual media making a vital contribution to inclusion.

The purpose of Art and Design education is to give pupils the skills and knowledge necessary for them to express responses to ideas and experiences in a visual or tactile form. Art and Design creates an opportunity to inspire and stimulate children’s creativity and imagination and is a fundamental means of personal expression and communication.

Whilst art is essentially a practical subject, it provides opportunities for reflection and with increased sensitivity; pupils are encouraged to make informed, thoughtful and critical responses to their own work and that of others. By exploring the meanings in the work of artists, crafts persons and designers, children can learn about the different roles and functions of Art and Design in their own lives and develop a rigorous understanding of cultural richness and diversity.

At Burton Primary School, we have implemented the Kapow Revised (from September, 2022 onwards) Art and Design scheme into our Art and Design teaching. The Art and Design curriculum is ambitious, engaging, stimulating and provides continuity and progression with a wide range of high quality art and design experiences. Where possible, Art and Design will be taught as part of a topic and will link cross-curricular learning themes. However, most Kapow units are standalone to ensure progression and coverage of a range of Art and Design skills and knowledge.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Children begin their Art and Design learning journey at Burton Primary School in a fun, hands-on and developmentally appropriate way. Our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum is designed to enable children to strengthen key skills and explore new techniques and ideas. The scheme closely links to the relevant outcomes and the Early Learning Goals are taken from Development Matters and the EYFS Statutory Framework to ensure the highest quality of teaching. The play-based scheme was created by Early Years and Art Specialists and ensures a child-led approach to Art and Design, with every lesson reflecting the ethos of ‘process over outcome’. Lessons have flexible objectives, making them easily adaptable to any topic, and contain teacher prompts, guidance on assessment and key vocabulary. Teaching staff work and play alongside the children as they explore a range of media and grow in confidence as artists and makers. Each unit mirrors the four key areas identified in the KS1 and KS2 scheme to ensure learning progression right from Reception through the school. Each unit provides opportunities for pupils to learn new skills, practise their fine motor skills and develop their vocabulary with subject-specific language.

Key Stage 1 and 2

The revised Art and Design scheme offers a holistic and sequenced teaching of the National Curriculum, where each unit taught works towards the end of key stage attainment targets.

The Kapow scheme of work fulfils the statutory requirements in the National Curriculum (2014). The National Curriculum for Art and Design aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences

• Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques

• Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design techniques

• Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

From these aims, the Kapow scheme has identified five strands which run throughout their scheme of work:

• Generating ideas

• Using sketchbooks

• Making skills (including formal elements)

• Knowledge of artists

• Evaluating and analysing

From these five strands, the Kapow Art and Design scheme has created sequential lessons organised into four core units which run through every year group to ensure the progression of skills and knowledge. The organisation of lessons into four units will enable children to activate prior learning as they build on knowledge and skills gained in earlier units. In addition, children develop mastery in the process of making rather than the performative final outcome. Lessons offer clear skills and knowledge progression divided into four units across each academic year.

Our Progression of Skills and Knowledge documents identify the skills and knowledge that are taught within each unit and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of the Early Years Foundation Year and Key Stage 1 and 2. Creativity and independent outcomes are robustly embedded into the Kapow units, supporting students in learning how to make their own creative choices and decisions, so that their art outcomes, whilst still being skill-specific and knowledge-rich, are unique to the pupils. Lessons are always practical in nature and encourage experimental and exploratory learning with pupils using and taking ownership of their sketchbook (from year 1) to document their ideas. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all pupils with opportunities to extend pupils’ learning.