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.

• Yearly Overviews

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.