"It doesn't matter if you can't speak the same language. If you have pictures or better still, if you can draw things then you can communicate anything to anyone."

Antony Gormley

Intent

At Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School we strive to create a love of and interest for art and design and to inspire pupils ability to express themselves both creatively and imaginatively. We aim to develop a love for the arts by offering a curriculum that explores and evaluates the work of a variety of artists, allows for the communication of what we see, think and feel about art, and gives opportunity for all to create art work using colour, texture, pattern and form by using a variety of materials and processes to do so. 

Our curriculum is based on three themes: Pride in our Place, Aspire and Achieve, and Ignite Possibilities. Through these themes we educate our children to use the vibrancy of our city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, appreciate what they have and notice what is around them. They can see for themselves how art can enhance the local area by visiting the Anthony Gormley statues at 'Another Place', a short distance from our school. Our art curriculum helps children develop the skills of communication and self expression. We provide pupils with experiences that are sensory, visual and tactile and allow pupils to respond to the world around them through a variety of different media.

We follow the National Curriculum for primary art beginning in the EYFS with Expressive, Arts and Design. An art progression map from yr1-y6 builds upon prior knowledge and skills in a carefully sequenced curriculum and makes links to other subject where possible. It ensures that all children are given the opportunity to become increasingly proficient in drawing, painting, printing, sculpture and other techniques. They are encouraged to use their thinking skills to think critically about art and design and reflect upon its place in our cultural heritage. 

Implementation

Our Art curriculum is taught using the Great Teaching Toolkit, 2020. We endeavour to be consistent in our approach to create a supportive environment that is inclusive. We support all our pupils using adaptive teaching techniques, Voice 21 talk tactics and oracy sentence stems. We activate hard thinking through our thinking schools strategies and Q Matrix questioning to bring Art to life and develop a real sense of enquiry. At Our Lady Star of the Sea, we have a consistent recipe for teaching Art which follows Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction.

Impact

The impact of our Art curriculum is measured through a variety of different strategies. Teachers assess progress in Art and Design through a variety of means and use different kinds of evidence. To further assess knowledge, teachers also listen to pupils talking about art and design during class and group discussions. The evidence for assessment occurs in different forms and at different times through the course of a unit of work. These assessments are used over time to build a profile of achievement across all of the objectives. Individual teachers are responsible for monitoring and assessing children’s progress and are expected to provide evidence of progress through sketch books. Teachers review progress each term and identify and plan for next steps in learning. Children will be assessed against the learning objectives related to the subject aims of the National Curriculum for their Key Stage.

Children's learning is monitored by regular sketch book scrutiny by the Art and Design Subject Leader in which constructive feedback is given to staff for future planning. Art and Design will also be monitored through learning walks and pupil voice interviews. This information is then used by the subject lead to inform further curriculum developments, provision and staff training needs.

At Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School, staff work closely together as a team to ensure children receive the best art curriculum to allow them to develop a love and appreciation, and passion for becoming the Artists and Designers of the future.