Art and Design
What is Art?
At Preston Grange Primary, we define art as the use of visual means to communicate an idea or emotion through the use of various media or just to be visually pleasing or beautiful. Art is intensely personal to both the artist and the audience.
Why do we teach Art at Preston Grange?
We believe Art to be an essential part of your child’s education as it allows them to access the great wealth of creativity both in Britain and around the world. It also equips them with the skills to make their own imaginative and creative response to their experiences and allows them to respond work from great art and artists from around the world. There is also a wealth of evidence to show that children’s well being, health, confidence and character is enhanced by access to the arts. In addition, your child has an entitlement to access the best of what has been said and thought and a strong understanding of Art allows them to access this. Last but not least we believe that your child has a right to study Art for enjoyment, curiosity and pleasure.
How do we teach Art at Preston Grange?
We teach Art as a discrete subject to ensure that children can understand the discipline best. We ensure that they understand what Art is, why it is important and the knowledge and attributes of a good artist. However, we do not neglect the links between Art and other foundation subjects. Through our use of a 3D curriculum we ensure that learning is meaningful and deep by drawing attention to the links between subjects within a year group, across year groups and across both.
We teach Art in four 1-week blocks. This ensures the children learn deeply across a unit and allows for teachers to make the most of feedback. It also allows children to develop understanding of a medium and follow a process to creating their own piece.
We follow a flexible artistic process to deepen children’s understanding of a medium or type of art which leads to their own response. Typically, it will follow this structure;
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Research (looking at a period, style, subject or particular medium)
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Experimentation (using the techniques taught for that particular medium)
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Design (planning a response)
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Making (using all of the above to create their response)
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Evaluation (used all the way through a unit but also on a final piece to provide feedback)
We use two key documents in each unit we teach. The first is a Knowledge Organiser this outlines the key knowledge that a child will have at the end of a unit. If a child has this knowledge and retains it over time then they are making good progress. The second document is a Never-Heard-The-Word grid. This has key vocabulary the children will know, understand and be able to explain at the end of a unit. They will complete this at the beginning and the end of each unit.
What makes a good artist at Preston Grange?
We believe a good artist has a solid knowledge of the mediums, art works and techniques they have studied and can compare and contrast each of them. They must also be able to ask questions of art and discuss their response and what the artist’s intentions may have been. It is important for a good artist to use their imagination and creativity to produce their own work which improves in quality over time.