Art
The intent of our Art curriculum is:
To inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. To enable critical thinking and a knowledge of how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture of our communities.
At Birkbeck, we believe that Art is not just about expressing feelings and emotions about events, life and the world around us but also offering a unique opportunity to reflect on how we understand the world around us to be and how others' understanding may be different from our own.
Our curriculum coverage posters provide information about which units are taught in which year groups and the order in which they are taught. You can view the Art one below:
Our Art curriculum is structured around key threads of concept that are strategically developed and revisited as children move through the curriculum. This allows us to deepen knowledge strategically and to show children the vast array of connections that exist between different forms and periods of art. Children's understanding also enables them to take control over the styles and techniques that they use themselves in their own pieces and when analysing these pieces. You can read more about how each concept thread is developed below:
concept thread development art.pdf
Below you can see the development of our key concept threads in grid form so that you can see how each one is progressed and developed as children move through the school.
art curriculum thread development table.pdf
The document below provides a summary of what the children learn about during each unit of work from Year 1 to Year 6 as their knowledge and skills deepen and develop.
curriculum content by subject art.pdf
Lesson delivery
Every Art lesson begins with a retrieval practice starter which has the aim of activating prior knowledge around the concept thread which the lesson to come is focused on.
Every lesson also includes clarification of any technical vocabulary to be used in the lesson. This always takes place before the main lesson content begins.
All Art lessons are delivered in line with our principles of teaching and learning which are the same for all subjects. These are the principles that we believe underpin truly great teaching and learning. You can read about how these are applied to Art lessons below:
birkbeck primary school art implementation guide 1 .pdf
Celebrating Art
At Birkbeck, we pride ourselves on our academic outcomes but we also believe that there is far more to an education than that and we are proud of the offering we have for our pupils in the arts subjects. We want all of our pupils to be confident artists and to be proud when they excel in this area. This is why when you walk around school, you will see examples of children's work framed on our walls like an art gallery. We believe that this kind of celebration of pupils' work raises expectations and ambition and reminds our school community of how highly we value creativity.
Assessment
We assess Art once per term. Teachers assess children's body of work against a set of descriptors which match the threads of concept that our Art curriculum is designed by. As such, the curriculum is the model for progression that we follow and assess against. Assessment is reported to parents and carers every term at parents evening.
