Intent:
Mevagissey School believes that it is important for art to be fully inclusive for every child. Our aims are to both fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Art and Design and provide a broad and balanced curriculum. We will ensure the progressive development of knowledge and skills; enabling children to observe and record from both first-hand experience and their imagination whilst encouraging the development of the children’s proficiency in controlling materials and tools.
It is important that they acquire knowledge and become competent in various art and design techniques and processes as well as beginning to develop an awareness of the visual and tactile elements including; colour, pattern and texture, line and tone, shape and form. We promote enthusiasm for the enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts and develop a knowledge of significant artists, craftspeople and designers, by increasing critical awareness of the roles and purposes of art and design in different times and cultures. We are strongly involved with historical community festivities for example, the Fish Festival and a variety of activities throughout Mevagissey Feast Week all linked in various ways to Art and Design.
The aims of teaching Art and Design at Mevagissey School are:
- To engage, 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 inspire pupils to develop future aspirations beyond their school journey.
- As pupils progress through the school, they should start to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of Art and Design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity, behaviours and wealth of our nation.
- To produce creative work, exploring their own ideas and recording their experiences.
- To become more skilled in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
- To evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
- To know about great artists, craft-makers and designers and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms, including those local to Mevagissey.
Implementation:
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Art and Design, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. This is taught discretely through the Kapow Primary Framework, focusing on the knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. At Mevagissey, we ensure that Art and Design is viewed with the same importance as the core subjects, as we feel this is vital in building the children’s cultural capital.
The Art and Design curriculum at Mevagissey is based upon the National Curriculum, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons for their class using Kapow, following our two-year rolling programme that alternates half- termly between Art and Design and Design and Technology, which is also delivered from Kapow. This progression ensures the curriculum coverage and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.
We are proud of our Wrap Around After School Clubs which for KS1 includes an Art and Crafts Club and KS2 an Art Club, where children are offered additional opportunities to explore, experience and enjoy Art and Design. These cross-year groups clubs provide a wider social, experiential and fun learning atmosphere to build on and consider other’s points of view and interests, design and create individual pieces of work based around a variety of focuses.
Educational visits provide further opportunities for teachers to plan for additional art learning outside of the classroom. We have ensured that the children have had opportunities to experience art and design during visits, including visits to the beach at Polstreath and the village. The children have explored local museums/art galleries and had visitors into school to share art and design learning and have hands on experiences. There is a strong link with the community during historical events where the children are directly involved in being an integral part of proceedings. For example, at the Centenary of the memorial for those lost at war in the village centre, a group of the children were involved in creating a special dedication from the school to the community. This was then shared at the formal ceremony and has subsequently been stored as a living memory in the village’s museum.
Impact:
Within Art and Design, we look to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and enquiry-based learning opportunities. Emphasis is placed upon investigative learning opportunities to help children gain a coherent knowledge of understanding of each unit of work covered throughout the school.
We use Kapow Primary Art and Design curriculum because it provides high quality, well thought out lesson plans designed to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills with vocabulary progression incorporated into the units of work. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary.
- Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
- Images (and videos) of the children’s practical learning (Seesaw).
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Moderation; staff meetings where pupil’s work is scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.