Art
"Art has the role in education of helping children to become like themselves instead of more like everyone else." Sydney Gurewwitz Clemens
At Potters Gate and St Andrews School we believe that pupils have the right of freedom of expression. Through high quality art education that engages, inspires and challenges, pupils will develop the skills and knowledge to create and experiment.
Pupils will develop a sense of fellowship and community through collaborative projects and work with local artists and institutions within the context of a World Craft Town. Pupils will also experience the cultures of others through looking at the work of specific artists, workshops in school and visits to institutions outside our local area.
In our classrooms, children feel safe and trusted to make decisions and to express themselves without the fear of being wrong or different to their peers. Pupils are given time to communicate and reflect using meta-cognitive skills and are given the opportunity to learn from their peers, celebrating differences in views and ideas.
Pupils will leave our schools resilient, and confident to express their ideas as they process their experiences of the world around them.
With the exception of Early Years, our children all use sketchbooks to document their learning and creative journeys; where they have the opportunity to record, review and revisit their ideas. We feel these are a vital part of developing our children to work as artists, craft makers and designers.
We use the progression documents from the NSEAD to help inform planning, where the curriculum is sectioned into four different progress objectives:
Generating ideas - the skills of designing and developing ideas
Making - the skills of making art, craft and design
Knowledge - knowledge of both technical process and cultural context
Evaluating - the skills of judgement and evaluation
Our own progression of skills document then supports our curriculum development further, showing how drawing, painting, sculpture, printing, collage, digital media and textiles are developed over time. These documents can be found in the curriculum area of our website. We use Access Art to support the planning, and this is slightly adapted to support Creativity & Cultural Development, Spiritual Development, Community & Courageous Advocacy, Health & Wellbeing and Aspiration as well as the development of British Values (democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs ).
Each year the Year 6 children take part in a collaborative art project. This involves the children learning new skills and then leaving behind the work they have created as a gift. This is displayed for them to see if ever they return and for the enjoyment of the rest of the school.
Year 5 Batik Pupils explored sustainability in the fashion industry. To begin, they voted on an area to focus on. One class voted on the impact of fast fashion on pollinators. As they researched into this area, they created symbols and slogans. Pupils then used Batik to bring their symbols and slogans to life! During this project, pupils learnt how to repair holes in jeans and explored different hand stitches. Pupils also had the opportunity to explore a natural dye technique called bundle dying.
Year 5 Clay Sculptures During their 2D to 3D project, pupils had the challenge to create art a sculpture which would encourage people to think about our relationships with other animals. This project began by pupils looking at the Photomontages of Hannah Höch to explore the power of art to encourage society to reflect on their ideas.
Pupils combined photos of animals and people and from their collage created charcoal sketches. From their 2D sketches, they planned and created a 3D sculpture. To help them think about the use of negative space in their sculptures, pupils looked at the work of Henry Moore. Finally, they used small figures to imagine how the public might engage with their sculptures.
Year 3 Paint and Cloth Year 3 looked at a range of artists in their topic. They looked closely at marks artists create in their work. Following on from their research, pupils explore different ways to create marks through painting. They took their cloth and brushes outside and created tones, tints and hues inspired by nature. Once their textile piece was dry, they worked onto it with stitches. They were inspired by the work of contemporary artists Hannah Rae and Alice Kettle.
Year 2 Drawing & Printing Year 2 have explored drawing and printing. They begin this project by looking at the mono prints of Xgaoc'o X'are and then create their own monoprints. They then look at heritage and identity in art around the world. Exploring the work of Bhajan Hunjan. Bhajan often uses repetition and motifs/symbols/shapes that draw upon both her Sikh heritage and fine art abstraction to encourage viewers to reflect on social, spiritual and emotional environments. Pupils also look at Adinkra are symbols from Ghana which can often be found on pottery and textiles. From their time exploring artists and symbols, pupils then designed their own symbol to represent themselves and their family. They used intaglio printing to print onto paper and fabric.
We have been awarded the Artsmark Silver Award!
