"Art educationalists, and psychologists who study children's art, claim that it promotes educational benefits that other school subjects cannot. These benefits come both from practising art and from learning about it”
(Richard Jolley-Child psychologist)
Curriculum Intent
At Ladbrooke JMI School we believe that all children should have a broad balanced experience in art and design. High quality art education should engage, inspire and challenge children, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment invent and create their own works of art. Children should also know how art has shaped our history and contributed to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation. Art and Design is taught as a subject in itself but is also based on curriculum themes. Children will learn to respect each other’s unique creativity. All children should be engaged, excited and proud of their work and should be able to express themselves through their art work.
Implementation
The national curriculum for Art & Design has been broken down into key skills and split into each individual year group. Our progression of skills document shows how the skills build on each other. Art is taught regularly by class teachers. Where possible, art activities are linked to other curriculum areas.
Children will learn about different artist each year which will widen the children’s knowledge and understanding of famous artist and the skills they use in their drawings. Children use Art Sketch books which are passed on to the next class, these are used to develop skills and practise ideas. At the beginning of each year the children will create a self-portrait using the skills children have learnt which show the progression of the skills across the school. This work is completed in a separate sketch book.
In addition we have theme weeks where children create art work which is then displayed at an art gallery. They will also have a yearly competition to encourage children to use their imagination and create their best work so it can be displayed across the school.
At the end of year 6, the children work with an artist to create a piece of art which stays in the school as a permanent legacy. Examples of this are mosaics, a carved wooden totem pole and stepping stones.
Impact
The benefits of art education are:
Imagination and Creativity. Children can take their experiences of the world and transform them through art, making new connections and relationships through their inventive minds. Their knowledge, memories and fantasies all feed their imagination. Art allows children to explore, build on and record their own creative and imaginative ideas.
By the end of the children's time at Ladbrooke, we want the children to have developed the following skills or had the following opportunites.
Expression Making pictures allows children to express their feelings and ideas, both as a means of self-expression and to communicate to others. These may include reliving a happy event they recently experienced (a birthday party or a day out), or drawing out some sad feelings as a therapeutic exercise. Older children may use pictures for more conceptual purposes, expressing their concerns and ideas.
Visual thinking Pictures encourage us to think about and understand the world visually, instead of restricting learning and the acquisition of knowledge to words and numbers alone. Visual thinking helps children learn other subjects. It is a skill used in a wide variety of professions, including the sciences as well as the arts.
Observational skills Making pictures helps children observe the subject matter of the real-world scene they are drawing from more closely, and makes them better observers of detail in the world around them. Developing observational skills through picture-making facilitates the child’s visual sensitivity to the world.
Problem solving and analytical skills Pictures enable children to explore and test out ideas, while making decisions on how they choose to depict them. For instance, children will learn problem-solving skills as they grapple with trying to create a three-dimensional scene from the world on a two-dimensional page. With practice, children learn that concentration and persistence allow them to get closer to the pictures they are trying to achieve.
Autonomy A child’s picture is his or her own. It has worth in its own right, without having to be measured or judged by others as right or wrong. The child has the authority to say what the picture is of, or what it communicates, building up their confidence and self-esteem.