St Mark's Eccles C.E. Primary School

Art

'Every child is an artist.'- Pablo Picasso

Our school vision underpins our art curriculum, enabling children to flourish into creative, collaborative, expressive and reflective artists who respect and support each other through their artistic learning journey.

Intent

At St Mark’s we want our children to appreciate and value the importance of art as a highly subjective and individual experience, but one which is also capable of bringing people together. We would like to develop children’s artistic talents allowing them to grow and flourish so that they have no limits to what their artistic ambitions could be.

Art and Design allows children to fully express their individuality and creativity and so our art and design curriculum is designed to engage, inspire and challenge children, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to participate in, experiment with, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. 

We equip our pupils with the skills required to have an understanding of the elements of art, the language of art and design and to understand its value when exploring other cultures and times in our history. Our aim is to ensure that children are confident approaching artwork, feel a strong sense of achievement and value the impact of art within our own lives.

Implementation 

Art is seen as a means of communication through a variety of skills that are taught and developed in their own right. Therefore, lessons at St Marks are carefully planned in line with the National Curriculum and our self-developed ‘Pilgrim Progress’ assessment procedures provide support for staff and pupils to monitor their progress against the gaining of these key skills and knowledge. This important spine allows us to manage our split classes and plan a clear cycle of topics and learning that begins with an individual child's starting point. 

Our Art and Design curriculum has been structured in a cross-curricular way to provide maximum inspiration to our artists and teachers create a positive attitude to Art and Design to encourage all children to reach their full artistic potential. 

Pupils at St Marks explore a large range of mediums to enable them to make informed choices for developing their ideas. As pupils progress, they will develop a deep understanding of art and design which will enable them to evaluate and communicate their ideas, feelings and opinions of their own artwork and that of other artists.  We also encourage our children to create artwork at a variety of different scales, on a variety of different surfaces and both individually and in collaboration with others.

At St Marks, each of our artists has their own sketch book, in which they can record ideas, practise new techniques and to further refine their skills. These sketchbooks give our artists the opportunity to study an existing piece of art, create a constructive and reflective critique of this work and to use these ideas to develop their own piece of related art work, enabling pupils to show perseverance and dedication to complete any project to the best of their ability. Artists from different eras are studied throughout the school to give our artists a balanced knowledge and understanding of Art concepts and skills. Art is celebrated throughout the school in the form of displays and online galleries.

We also encourage our children to use our beautiful school grounds and local area as a source of inspiration for their own artwork.

Impact

The impact of our art and design curriculum can be seen not only in our children’s sketch books but also through the use of art displays in classrooms and around the school which highlight the importance of the art curriculum to our children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection.

Everything we do is with the child in mind, and strong relationships are built between pupils and staff which create an atmosphere for learning which is conducive to success. Children will leave St Mark’s knowing that it is okay to make mistakes along their journey, they will think for themselves and be critical about their own and other’s work- knowing how they can improve it or knowing when to stop if they are satisfied with their creative work.

By the end of each Key Stage, children can apply and understand the skills, knowledge and processes they have been taught so that they are proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft, and design techniques. Assessment is based on our Pilgrim Progress, which is shared across out Multi-Academy Trust.

Pupil Voice

What do St Mark's children think about art?

How do you feel in art lessons?

'I feel relaxed in art lessons because you can express your feelings when you are drawing or painting. It helps me relieve my feelings' Zach (Y6)

'I feel calm because we have music on and art takes me somewhere else' Jazmyn (Y5)

'Art is calming because it's quiet, focused and you only have to think about your art and nothing else' Molly (Y4)

What skills have you learnt in art?

'I've learnt how to sketch 2-point perspective drawings and used different pencils to create different shades. I've also learned how to blend oil pastels.

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