Art & Design

At Barcroft, we believe Art and Design should allow children to communicate what they see, feel and think. Our curriculum allows the children to experiment with their ideas, using colour, texture, form, pattern and different materials and processes. We also value self-evaluation and encourage the children to be resilient in order to achieve their goals.

“Art is not just a subject to learn, but an activity that you can practise with your hands, your eyes, your whole personality.” Quentin Blake

Our Curriculum will:

Engage, inspire and challenge the pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.
Teach the children about the work of artists, crafts people and designers and apply their techniques and styles to their own work.
Provide opportunities to study historical, cultural and religious art.

In Early Years, the children learn Art and Design through the subject Expressive Arts and Design. The children access Art and Design through their play during continuous provision and child initiated time, as well as during adult led activities linked to a range of topics across the year.

In Key Stage 1 and 2, every child has an Art Sketch book and an Art Folder. The Art Book sketch book provides a record of the child’s learning and progress, which forms part of their art portfolio. The Sketchbook work may lead to a final piece of work or may just be used as a reference point for future pieces of work. The use of rubbers is discouraged in order to try and make the sketchbook a place where it is okay to make mistakes.

The A3 Art folder is used for any work the children create on a larger scale such as collage, paintings, chalk work etc…

The sketch books and folders are passed up to the next year group.

The teaching of art and design takes into account the varied abilities, attitudes and individual needs of the children. Some art lessons will be differentiated by outcome not task. However, if a skill or activity is deemed inappropriate for a child or group of children, alternatives will be planned which best suit their needs. Lessons and activities are planned to include all children by using a range of approaches. This includes: questioning, use of equipment, and mixed ability groups to enable the children to work with their peers.

Mrs R Choudhry

Art and Design Leader

How we support children with SEN

How do we ensure all children can access Art and Design lessons?

Art and Design lessons are differentiated in a variety of ways sometimes by outcome. We ensure that we vary our teaching styles to suit the children in the class through visual aids, hands on learning, auditory clips as well as discussion and simplification of language where needed. We provide a range of different size equipment to support children in developing their fine motor skills. Support needs to come before, during and after the lesson. All children are given support throughout the lesson to make progress, but tasks for children with additional needs are changed appropriately. For example the children may be given a template, photograph as inspiration for drawing or the colours of paint (so they don’t need to mix the correct colour) etc… Throughout the lesson children are given praise and encouragement which motivates them to succeed. Children often work in pairs or small groups of mixed ability for children to support their peers and learn from others. Lessons are progressive and skills are built upon weekly and year by year, therefore children repeat and develop their skills in a range of ways.

How does Art and Design at Barcroft Prepare children with Special Educational Needs for the future?

Art prepares children with special educational needs for adulthood in a number of ways. It encourages fine motor skills, neural development and problem solving abilities and can be used effectively to allow children to understand and process their world and how to deal with emotions in a safe way. Art is an activity that uses different senses as they experiment and create, squishing paint between their fingers, mixing colours and materials, or drawing from imagination or from what they can see in front of them. Children absorb incredible amounts of new information, and they need to process what they have learned in a safe, reflective way. Art allows them to explore feelings and deal with both daily and significant events. Art materials provide a safe outlet for emotions with feelings and ideas being reduced to a manageable size and manipulated as desired. Movement, image, colour, line, and imagination all help children express themselves in a multidimensional way; a way that words may not be able to do, or that may be more comfortable for them than words. Creating art expands a child’s ability to interact with the world around them, and provides a new set of skills for self-expression and communication. When children work together in art they learn to share, to interact with others, and to be responsible in cleaning and putting away materials which are positive and important changes for social learning. Through creative art, children may be able to represent experiences that they cannot verbalise. When children are allowed to experiment in a positive way in art it is giving them the learning skills to invent something new when they grow up. When we value children’s creativity we are raising their self-esteem.

How we challenge more able pupils

How do we challenge pupils in Art and Design lessons?

More able pupils are challenged in Art and Design through differentiated work. They are given challenge activities to build upon their prior learning and extend their thoughts and ideas. More abled pupils are encouraged to interpret pieces of art and use these as inspiration to create their own style of work. More abled children are given the opportunity to compare different artists and their techniques and discuss their own techniques in art and how they can be developed further. We also offer Art clubs for children who are passionate about the subject and want to develop their skills further.

More able children are taught to:

Apply their skills in new ways
Deepen their level of knowledge by comparing and contrasting
Discuss artists styles and techniques and compare a range of artists work
Create their own masterpieces taking into account what they have been taught and artists styles and techniques

What jobs can Art and Design lead to in the future for more abled pupils?

Careers in art and design can be competitive and require much natural talent to enter. Here are some example of jobs which being more able in Art and Design can lead to in the future: