Art
At Danesfield, we believe Art and Design gives all pupils the opportunity to express themselves through creativity and imagination. Our aim is to develop and nurture our pupil’s enthusiasm for the creative arts and see it is as not only an enjoyable activity, but also a career aspiration. Pupils learn to explore and generate ideas, acquire skills and apply judgement through a hands-on exploratory approach. Pupils develop their knowledge and understanding, as well as their skills, through specific teaching of knowledge and skills and different links across the curriculum. Pupils learn about the world of art including: artists and designers from different times and cultures.
Our curriculum at Danesfield school, incorporates the essential knowledge and skills that the National Curriculum requires while also making links across our wider curriculum. Art and Design is taught through 3 units per year group – each one lasting half a term.
In KS1: drawing, painting, printing, clay, textiles and 3D form. In KS2: drawing, painting, printing, sculpture, textiles and collage. Each unit comprises of 4 objectives: generating ideas (including researching artists), making, evaluating and knowledge. This allows the children to build and develop not only a wide set of art skills but be inspired by great artists, gain an understanding of technical processes as well as the skills to evaluate their own work in a holistic approach. At Danesfield we aim to provide the children with opportunities to:
• Investigate and research great artists and inspiring art
• Experiment and work with a wide range of media
• Explore and develop their own ideas and justify their decisions
• Evaluate and develop their own work
• Link Art with other areas of the curriculum
• Understand and use the language of Art and Design
• Work independently and collaboratively on a range of different projects
• Investigate Art and Design throughout history in various genres, styles, time periods, cultures and traditions
• Investigate Art and Design within the locality
• Establish and develop a wide set of skills and knowledge of Art and Design
• Foster an enjoyment and appreciation of Art and a knowledge of artists, designers and crafts people
The structure of the art curriculum ensures that children are able to develop their knowledge and understanding of the work of artists, craftspeople and designers from a range of times and cultures and apply this knowledge to their own work. The consistent use of children’s art folders means that children are able to review, modify and develop their initial ideas in order to achieve high quality outcomes.
Children learn to understand and apply the key principles of art: line, tone, texture, shape, form, space, pattern, colour, contrast, composition, proportion and perspective. The opportunity for children to refine and develop their techniques over time is supported by effective lesson sequencing and progression between year groups. This also supports children in achieving age related expectations at the end of their cohort year.
Classroom displays reflect the children’s sense of pride in their artwork and this is also demonstrated by creative outcomes across the wider curriculum. The school environment also celebrates children’s achievements in art and demonstrates the subject’s high status in the school, with outcomes, including sculptures, enhancing the outdoor, as well as indoor, environment. The Art curriculum at Danesfield school contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection. Children will achieve age related expectations in Art at the end of their cohort year.
We are very proud of our Artsmark Gold Award 2023, which is accredited by the Arts Council England, to show Danesfield champions and embeds the arts across the whole curriculum. recognising the impact the arts can have on our pupils. Feedback included the positive increase in the emphasis on arts and culture and how engaging with the Arts is having tangible results on pupils and staff. They noted that pupils access a consistent and relevant range of experiences in school and they were impressed that the pandemic didn't stop our arts engagement as pupil access continued through digital means and in Forest School settings. They also identified that the focus at Danesfield is very much on the experience of the pupils which chimes with our 'whole child' ethos.
