Arts Council and JLT

At Meadlands, we have an Art Council and this creative team is made up of the Art Subject Lead, a Governor and children from different year groups.

The aim of the Arts Council is to build links with our local community, identifying parents, professionals (and organisations) who would be interested in sharing their work or setting creative ‘real-life’ briefs. They research exhibitions; identify opportunities for all children to visit art galleries (even virtual gallery visits during lockdown); identify art competitions and will soon be teaching art techniques to a wider audience through our school website .

The Art Junior Leadership Team (who are part of the Art Council) have additional responsibilities. They actively involve Meadlands children and collect ‘pupil voice’ ideas and suggestions to assist in the planning of Art Week. They also join the Art Lead for Learning Walks and collect feedback from the children across the school; keep the art studio restocked and well-resourced and plan and present Art inspired assemblies.

Link to Art & DT Policy

Intent

At Meadlands, creativity and wellbeing are positioned alongside academic learning. Art is at the very core of our school values which are: ‘self-motivation’, ‘independence’, ‘initiative’, ‘resilience’, ‘curiosity’, ‘imagination’ ‘determination’ and ‘kindness’. Art and Design at Meadlands is colourful, innovative and exciting. The Creative Arts are delivered through high quality arts experiences and a motivating and inspiring curriculum where children are introduced to the work of artists and designers and challenged to interpret and respond to these artworks using a range of materials and specific techniques. We are passionate about creating projects to nurture the creative imagination and encourage all children from Nursery through to Year 6, to experiment, explore and take risks. To empower these ideals, everyone is encouraged to ‘Dream Big’ and then teach each other how to investigate, discover, create, ‘fail’, reflect and repeat. Through supporting resilience, we allow each other to flourish.

Implementation

At Meadlands, we strive to meet the National Curriculum expectations and guidelines. The curriculum is planned so that heroes, tasks, investigations and evaluations all focus on a progression of technical skills.  The technical skills for drawing, painting, printing, collage and sculpting are introduced in KS1 and each year they are revisited and advanced.  Specific vocabulary and terminologies are also taught and opportunities are incorporated into the lessons to support the children’s use of correct vocabulary to communicate the learning. By the time children reach Y6, they will be familiar with many of the specific technical terms for art, design, music, dance and performance. So Year 6 children will be able to reinforce much of the vocabulary nurtured in previous years.

The artworks and design products have been selected to promote specific skill sets which we want the children to explore and achieve. The artworks and designs have been selected to inspire. They are being used to show how, for example, artists have explored using different materials, investigated specific themes or content or show the different skill areas – drawing, painting, collage, printing, or different sculpting techniques that we are introducing to the pupils.

It is important for children to be introduced to a diverse range of artists and designers from different periods in history and from different cultures. Our Heroes inspire us to follow our school motto and Dream Big.

• Artists chosen represent a diverse range.
• All year groups have artists from different periods in art history.
• From Y1-Y6 children will be introduced to 12 male artists and 10 Female artists; 2 artists have disabilities (one with no arms or legs and paints using her feet or mouth and the other has a physical disability that paralyses one side of his body); 1 artist is well known for mental health problems (other artists have mental health issues – but this is not promoted with their art). There are LGBTQ+  artists on Knowledge Organisers, MTP and additional LGBTQ artists are introduced for Arts Week .
• From Y1-Y6 children will be introduced to 9 British artists (one British/Nigerian); 6 European; 3 American (one American/Mexican); 1 Japanese
• There are black, white and mixed-race ethnicities covered.

The Art Lead has developed Knowledge Organisers, which ensure progression of Art, Design & Technology knowledge and skills, and acquisition of key vocabulary. As each unit of Art and Design & Technology progresses, children fill in a Learning Journey to recall and summarise what they have learned.

• Yearly Overviews

Artsmark Award 2022

We were awarded a silver Artsmark Award in the autumn of 2022. We are very proud of our Arts provision at Meadlands, providing children a progressive arts curriculum where we utilise the expertise of professional teachers to teach LAMDA, dance and music lessons. Our feedback from the Artsmark assessors commented on the tangible results our emphasis on arts and culture has on our pupils and staff along with our celebration and exploration of a range of diverse artists.  

IMPACT

The immediate impact of how art is taught at Meadlands is the visual journey presented in children’s sketchbooks.

• From initial introduction to the chosen artist, children have commented on what they like or don’t like.
• They have emulated techniques and practiced skills; creating their own art inspired by the initial artwork.
• Through self-reflection they have suggested their own next steps and what they could do to make these improvements.
• Because of this approach - children will develop resilience when evaluating their own progress and become more confident when experimenting.
• Children will know more, remember more, and understand more about artists and designers, musicians and performers through history and from different cultures.
   

Assessment

The process of evaluating and assessing the progression of skills acquired by the children is currently being developed at Meadlands.

There is no statutory Art or Design & Technology end of key stage assessment at Key Stage 2, but there is a statutory regulation to report to parents at least once a year about their child’s progress.

To assess the child’s ability to progress in art, craft and design a variety of different kinds of evidence needs to be collected and not just the final piece. It is important to take into account all aspects of children’s’ learning and achievement.

Teachers must consider:

• the quality of the products that children make AND the skills they exhibit as they use tools, materials and processes.
• the vocabulary used during self-reflections and during class discussions.
• what children know about the world of art, craft and design which places their own work in the wider cultural context.

The collection of evidence for assessment will be gathered over time to build a profile of achievement across all four of the progress objectives: skills/making, evaluating, knowledge and ideas.

Results

 Meadlands regularly attain first, second or third place in local art competitions.

Celebration of good work 

"Sensation" 2018

“What a fabulous exhibition. I love the colour and I can’t believe how accomplished the artists are!”

Creative thinking (or ‘Dreaming Big’) continues to thrive at Meadlands. This year’s art week was called ‘sensation’ – being directly inspired by the Saatchi Exhibition of 1996.

During Art week, Meadlands children had the amazing opportunity to attended bespoke art classes at Orleans House Gallery; explore occlusion and shape with artist Martin Alton; investigate printmaking with artist Louise Anderson and take part in a Life Drawing Class with artist Robin Rutherford. In addition to this, Y2 to Y6 created animations with Duncan Raitt who is Head of Animation @ Plastic Milk and a selection of children from across the school were invited to work with Emma Hughes, a professional animal photographer. This was the perfect opportunity for Sika, our PAT dog to become a super model for the day!

Teaching videos

1. Line is a moving dot.  https://youtu.be/egTEhfyMVx8

2. Hand-eye warm up. Blind contour line drawing https://youtu.be/o_w_vK7YWp0