Art and Design Intent (Our School Vision)

The Art curriculum enriches the experiences of all pupils here at Holy Trinity. We give pupils opportunities to think creatively and express themselves through visual means. During lessons, pupils are equipped with the skills and techniques that they need to create their own unique, visual masterpieces.

Art can inspire, stimulate and challenge pupils whilst encouraging them to grow and develop as individuals. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.

How is the Art & Design curriculum implemented in our school?

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in art and design at Holy Trinity, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Art and design is taught bi-termly using the AccessArt split curriculum . The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group. Each area ensures our pupils will learn the necessary skills when taught Art & Design within their classrooms, and will build upon the previous year group's knowledge including vocabulary.

The emphasis on knowledge ensures that children understand the context of the artwork, as well as the artists, architects and designers that they are learning about and being inspired by. This enables links to other curriculum areas, including History and Geography, with children developing a considerable knowledge of individual artists as well as individual works and art movements. A similar focus on skills means that children are given opportunities to express their creative imagination, as well as practice and develop mastery in the key concepts of art. Children’s knowledge and skills are built upon over a sequence of lessons which lead them to explore and experiment with their own creativity and interpretation of what has been taught. Pupils' art work is kept in their Art Portfolios, unless the piece is 3D form and therefore will be photographed for sketchbooks. All pupils are encouraged to evaluate their own and others' art work throughout the curriculum.

Pupils are encouraged to use their own sketchbooks as evidence of their art journey, where they will experiment with and explore a range of mediums, annotating work as they go with their observations and thoughts. Art lessons are supported by our school's Great Artist Days, where they learn about a range of diverse artists, the history of their life, appraising the artist's work, learning the specific techniques used and finally the pupils then design and create their own piece of art inspired by the artist.

How do we measure the impact of our Art & Design curriculum?

Our Art Curriculum is high quality, engaging and is planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. 

In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A celebration of learning on the school website on the Art & Design page which demonstrates progression across the school
• Teachers will make informal reflections on the teaching and learning during every art lesson
• Pupil discussions about their learning; which includes discussion of their thoughts, ideas, processing and evaluations of work
• Pupils have title pages at the beginning of each term's learning for them to recall previous knowledge and reflect on the term's learning through self-evaluation
• Teachers will use their own judgments alongside the pathway guidance supplied by AccessArt within the classroom to question pupils' understanding and support them where needed
• The subject lead will gather staff and pupil voice, monitor sketchbooks/art portfolios and observe teaching
• Photographs and videos of the pupils' learning will be taken as and when needed
• Annual reporting on the subject will be made by class teachers

"Congratulations to all the children at your school who entered, as their designs contributed towards a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the largest postage stamp design competition!"

External Art Links