Art and Design
Manorside Academy Art & Design Strategy
At Manorside Academy, we believe every pupil can foster a passion for art and design whilst developing substantive and disciplinary skills in a carefully sequenced way. We appreciate that the study of art can enable pupils to understand, appreciate and contribute to an area of life that supports them to become imaginative, creative and innovative members of society. Through a broad art curriculum (which uses the National Curriculum as a starting point), we develop practical, theoretical and disciplinary knowledge which advances pupils holistic knowledge of art. Our curriculum is designed to ensure that pupils get a balance of all three of these skills:
- Practical – This allows pupils to make choices based on what they know about different materials and media e.g. drawing, painting and sculpture.
- Theoretical – This enables pupils to make connections between art’s present, past and future; developing their knowledge of historical and cultural developments within art and design.
- Disciplinary – This is what pupils learn about how art is studied, discussed and judged. They look at the diversity of artistic outcomes the purpose and the meaning of art and how it has been part of much of human history.
The different movement of art are carefully mapped out throughout the progressive curriculum to ensure pupils are exposed to a range of artists and paradigms, exposing their awareness to how art is expressed and recorded. We have selected key art movements for the learners to study to enable them to understand how art and design is inspired by wider events and views. These key movements still inspire today and fundamentally changed the way in which art was thought of.
Pupils will learn the difference between historical and contemporary art which will support their transition into Key Stage 3 once they leave Manorside Academy.
A range of artists have been carefully chosen to show pupils a range of examples of different types of artwork, from different time periods and from different places across the world. Not only does this develop their theoretical knowledge of art, but also supports the development of their Cultural Capital knowledge.
When assessing pupils, staff are encouraged to use a range of strategies to get a holistic picture of a pupils’ abilities within the subject. Teachers will look at the pupils’ sketch books, final pieces of artwork created, more formal summative assessments and use their teacher judgements following lessons and discussions with pupils. As a school, we have adopted the Durham Commissions (2019) definition of creativity, ‘The capacity to imagine, conceive, express or make something that was not there before’ to support with clarity around assessing creativity.
The enrichment of Art is carefully mapped out in order to support the classroom learning and experiences the pupils are receiving. It ranges from artists coming into school, the offer of art based after school clubs and educational visits to famous art galleries (for examples the V&A Gallery in London). These experiences deepen pupils’ disciplinary knowledge and foster a love and deeper understanding for the pupils.
Art & Design Implementation at Manorside Academy
Our pupils are extremely proud of their sketch books, highlighting the artistic processes they have learnt in the lead up to creating a piece of art.
We teach pupils about a wide variety of artists whilst developing their technique across a range of skills including; drawing, block printing, painting, clay and sculpture. Our hope is that pupils have the ability to master the different techniques, applying their newly learnt skills to interpret different artists’ work. Children experiment with the use of colour, texture, form, line, shape, pattern and different materials/media.
We believe art allows the child to develop their imagination and creativity, to make connections through their inventive minds and gives children the skills to record their imagination and ideas. We plan a range of integrated experiences carefully planned to fit in with our topics in order for children to develop a range of skills in a meaningful and purposeful way.
As the children progress through school, art experiences are built upon so the children can make decisions about their approach to different challenges. Drawing skills are used to support many other subjects, for example designs to support design and technology projects and illustrations to support writing, and as such are very important aspects of how the children record their knowledge in a different way.
