Art and Design at Dalestorth

Art & Design Intent

At Dalestorth Primary and Nursery School, we teach Art & Design by meeting the requirements of the National Curriculum. Our aim is to engage and inspire pupils to experiment, invent and create their own works of art. They should know how Art & Design have shaped our history and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation. Art & Design is taught progressively throughout school, ensuring a build-up of knowledge and skills over time. We want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in their artwork, evaluating their work effectively and making appropriate adaptations as necessary.  Where appropriate, links are also made to ensure that children’s social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is enhanced through our teaching of Art & Design.

We aim to achieve this by teaching knowledge and skills through high-quality sequences of lessons, which are designed to help pupils develop their understanding of:

• Some of the world’s great artists.
• Vocabulary linked to the area of work.
• A range of techniques including drawing, painting and sculpture.
• Applying these techniques to produce their own creative artworks.
• Evaluating and thinking critically about their own and others’ work.

Subject Information

We have recently updated our whole school curriculum planning. We will continue to follow a 2 year rolling curriculum plan, but will now cover 3 topics each year ( 1 per term). This will enable us to explore topics more thoroughly and spend time embedding our learning. Please see the Curriculum Overview below for specific Art & Design information or follow this link to see how our Art & Design topics fit within our whole curriculum: https://www.dalestorth.notts.sch.uk/our-dalestorth-curriculum/

At Dalestorth, we work on a 2 year cycle within each teaching team (EYFS, Years 1 & 2, Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6) and we strive to ensure that the children build on, develop and progress their knowledge, skills and confidence in Art & Design as they move through school.

During each 2 year cycle the children will cover the following aspects of Art & Design: drawing, painting, collage, 3D construction, printmaking, textiles and ICT. We also want to ensure every child has the opportunity to experience and explore a wide range of art media during their time at Dalestorth. This includes, but is not limited to; paint, chalk, charcoal, pastels, sketching pencils, clay, Modroc, wax crayons, ink, pencil crayons, photographs, fabric, natural materials (leaves etc), felt, collage, dyes, papier mache and sponges.

Class Sketchbooks

At Dalestorth, we also want to encourage creativity and promote the enjoyment of Art & Design outside of school. Over the last few years, we have successfully introduced class skecthbooks, where a different member of the class takes home the sketchbook each week and adds their contribution. It is completely up to the children to decide what their piece of artwork will be and what type art media they use. They can be as creative and unique as they wish! When they bring the sketchbook back to school, each class will spend time sharing and celebrating the artwork together.

The Daisy Chain Project

We took part in The Ready, Steady Paint Daisy Chain Project to create the longest virtual daisy chain.  The children watched a video of an artist creating a daisy and then used various resources to create their own. We did a fantastic job and Dalestorth is now on the map!

Art Week 

We have all been really busy during Art Week! The children in FS2 have based their work around their new topic ‘Once Upon a Time’ and have been making box model houses, collaging a textured tree and exploring a range of different art media such as paint, wax crayons and felt tip pens to add colour to their drawings of characters from traditional tales. In Year 1 and 2, the children have used African animals as their focus and have been printing animal patterns, exploring paint mixing to create African sunset silhouette pictures and making 3D animal structures using box modelling resources. Children in Year 3 and 4 have been creating lots of different pieces of artwork based on the art form Mola, experimenting with creating their designs using chalk, paint and collage techniques. In Year 5 and 6, the children have used their Ernest Shackleton topic as a stimulus for creating their own artwork. They have explored techniques including tracing, sketching, painting and ICT.

Extra-curricular

At Dalestorth we try and promote a love of Art & Design outside of the school day as well as during our lessons. We often have art and craft clubs running after school for children from Year 1 to Year 6 at different times throughout the year. 

Competitions

We also give the children lots of opportunities to get involved in external art competitions where they can showcase their talents to a wider audience.