Author: Joseph Green

Mugginton Church of England Primary School

www.muggintonschool.co.uk
www.twitter.com/muggintonce

Art and Design Policy
This policy has been written in accordance with the Christian ethos of our school, our recognition of British values, an awareness of our position in the Global community and taking account of all current Safeguarding and Child Protection guidance and the new national curriculum September 2014.
At Mugginton Church of England Primary School, Art and Design is an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. We believe Art has the ability to elicit a range of emotions: transmit joy and allows children to express their individuality and creativity. We aim to offer our pupils a unique opportunity to develop the cultural capital and experience the power of creativity which we believe are part of a fulfilling life.
Art, craft and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity and expression. Our aim is for art and design to be taught as part of a rich and progressive curriculum, where we plan and sequence art lessons carefully to build upon previous learning, and secure new learning. At the heart of our teaching in art and design is a desire to engage, inspire and challenge all pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. By creating a rich, safe and nurturing environment, children are encouraged to take creative risks and express themselves, whilst gaining inspiration from great artists and works of art.
As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. By studying a diverse range of artists, both great past masters and contemporary, children will learn how art and design reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation and our world.
At Mugginton, we promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development in Art and Design by:
We recognise that children are naturally creative. We give pupils the freedom, materials and space to enable them to use their creativity and imagination to communicate their inner most feelings. Pupils engage with a range of works of art that develop their understanding and respect for, different people’s feelings and values.
Exploring and discussing work from a wide range of artists that cross cultural boundaries and across time, allows pupils to investigate how moral and ethical issues are portrayed in art.
We support pupils to work together when creating works of art. Pupils are taught to recognise how their art and the art of others can communicate with those viewing the work, having a powerful impact on the emotions of others.
We promote artistic opportunities and develop pupil’s appreciation of different cultures that influence artists. Pupils will be supported to have an understanding of how these influences have shaped their own heritage and that of others.
Our Art and Design curriculum encompasses the aims of the National Curriculum to ensure all pupils:
Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

We use a variety of teaching methods in art and design lessons. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding whilst promoting their enjoyment and engagement with the subject.
We make sure that the act of investigating and creating something includes exploring and developing ideas, and evaluating and developing work. We do this through a mixture of whole-class teaching and individual/group activities. Teachers make great efforts to celebrate the efforts of all children and to use particularly good work as a model for others. We encourage children to evaluate their own ideas and methods, and the work of others, and discuss what they think and feel about them. We give children the opportunity within lessons to work on their own and collaborate with others, on projects in two and three dimensions and on different scales. Children also have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials and resources, including ICT.
We recognise the fact that we have children of differing ability in all our classes, and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies:
setting common tasks that are open-ended and can have a variety of responses;
setting tasks of increasing difficulty where not all children complete all tasks;
providing a range of challenges with different resources;
using additional adults to support the work of individual children or small groups.
At Mugginton, alongside the National Curriculum objectives we aim to
Promote high levels of engagement in art and design by encouraging experimentation—banning the ‘I can’t draw’ mentality because art is about more than just drawing.
Encourage the children to gain inspiration from their peers and to have their celebrated by offering clear time for children to move around the classroom and view and feedback on each other’s work.
Provide a curriculum which allows the development of core skills such as shading; layering; threading a needle whilst taking care to avoid inhibiting the children’s creativity and individuality by offering open-ended, rich projects and celebrating all ideas.
Embracing contemporary trends in art, such as David Hockney’s use of an IPad to create pictures.
Making clear the links between great works of art and great writing—the inspiration behind great writing can come from great artwork.

In an Art & Design lesson at Mugginton, you will see:
Happy children, working with purpose individually or in groups. The children will be able to tell you what they are learning and what skills/knowledge they need to use in order to succeed (in an age-appropriate manner). They will be able to tell you about the different mediums they have used and talk about the artist (including painters, sculptors, designers) who is inspiring their work. Junior-aged children will be able to show a visitor their sketchbook and talk about the progress they have made in the subject and pieces of work they are most proud of.

The Foundation Stage
We encourage creative work in the reception class as this is part of the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum. We relate the creative development of the children to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals, which underpin the seven areas of learning and development set out in the Statutory Framework for the early years foundation stage 2014.
The area of expressive arts and design involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.
We provide a rich environment in which we encourage and value creativity. Children experience a wide range of activities that they respond to, using the various senses. We give them the opportunity to work alongside older pupils and other adults. The activities that they take part in are imaginative and enjoyable.
Key Stage 1
Pupils should be taught:
To use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
To use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination
To develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space
About the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.
Key Stage 2
Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.
Pupils should be taught:
To create sketchbooks to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas
To improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials (e.g. pencil, charcoal, paint, clay)
About great artists, architects and designers in history
Teaching Art & Design to children with special needs
All teaching and non-teaching staff are responsible for ensuring that all pupils irrespective of gender, ability, ethnicity and social circumstances have access to the whole curriculum. All pupils are set appropriate work according to their ability, not age. Special needs pupils may be supported in a variety of different ways – see SEND policy.
At our school we teach art and design to all children, whatever their ability. Art and design forms part of the school curriculum policy which provides a broad and balanced education to all children. Through our art and design teaching we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress. We do this by setting suitable learning challenges and responding to each child’s different needs. Assessment against the National Curriculum allows us to consider each child’s attainment and progress against expected levels.
When progress falls significantly outside the expected range, the child may have special educational needs. Our assessment process looks at a range of factors – classroom organisation, teaching materials, teaching style and differentiation – so that we can take some additional or different action to enable the child to learn more effectively. This ensures that our teaching is matched to the child’s needs.
Intervention may lead to the creation of an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for children with special educational needs. The IEP may include, as appropriate, specific targets relating to art and design. For children with greater needs the SEN coordinator may apply for specific funding through a GRIP or EHCP.
We enable pupils to have access to the full range of activities involved in learning art and design. Where children are to participate in activities outside the classroom, for example, a visit to an art gallery, we carry out a risk assessment prior to the activity, to ensure that the activity is safe and appropriate for all pupils.

Assessment and recording
We assess the children’s work in art and design whilst observing them working during lessons. Teachers record the progress made by children against the learning objectives for their lessons. At the end of the year we make a judgement against the National Curriculum levels of attainment. This information is used by the teacher to make an annual assessment of progress for each child, as part of the child’s annual report to parents. This information is also passed on to the next teacher.
Teachers keep evidence of the children’s work in their art/design work books. This demonstrates what the expected level of achievement is in art and design in each year of the school.
Resources
We have a wide range of resources to support the teaching of art and design across the school but we may supplement this with resources from the Derbyshire Library Service. Art materials are kept under the sink in the infant classroom, in the junior resource cupboard and in the art area of the Rainbow Room Corridor.
Monitoring and review
The monitoring of the standards of children’s work and of the quality of teaching in art and design is the responsibility of the art and design subject leader. The work of the subject leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of art and design, being informed about current developments in the subject, and providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school. The subject leader and other members of staff may attend CPD courses as appropriate.

Intent

Implementation

Impact

September 2021

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