Handcross Primary

Art

 

Art & Design 

Curriculum Intent for Art & Design 

We believe that all children should have the opportunities to learn about and appreciate art and design, and the importance of it in history, our culture and across the wider world. We want all children to love being creative, to be inspired by the world around them and artists to explore and experiment with ideas and techniques. Children should develop a range of skills and techniques to become confident, skillful artists who are self-reflective. We want our children to love art and design, to love being creative and expressive and to feel proud of the artwork they produce. Children should recognise themselves as artists and celebrate what they can do.

Our Curriculum 

Our curriculum is taught through a two year cycle for each Key Stage. All children in these key stages have at least six hours of lessons throughout a term. Throughout the cycles, children revisit and build upon a range of skills, such as drawing, painting, clay sculptures, printing and textiles. They acquire new artistic vocab, study artists and movements, as well as learn about different techniques, such as the colour theory and creating shade and tone when sketching. 

Please see our curriculum overviews to see the art units for each Key Stage and term. 

Arts and Wellbeing Week - May 2024 

In May 2024, we hosted our Arts and Wellbeing Week, linking visual arts, dance and Learning for Life. Our theme was 'freedom to express', focusing on children having the right to express their thoughts and feelings to support their wellbeing. Throughout the week, children engaged in different workshops including yoga, street dance, music, singing, poetry writing and creating visual art. As part of this week, all staff and children painted a tile (abstractly) as part of a whole-school collaborative art piece which is displayed in the school hall to celebrate our sense of creativity, expression and community. At the end of the week, we had a whole-school showcase to parents, as well as an art gallery filled of children's wonderful, colourful and expressive art. 

Artsmark 

The Artsmark is an award for primary and secondary schools by the Arts Council England. It helps schools to celebrate and develop arts, culture and creativity and ensure every young person can be creative and access a diverse, high-quality cultural education. The Arts Council's seven quality principles underpin the Artsmark criteria and should be embedded in the planning, delivery and evaluation of the Artsmark journey. 

We submitted our ‘Statement of Commitment’ in December 2023 and are continuing to work towards the gold status this academic year.