Our school believes that art is a fundamental part of children’s education. We believe that art and design provide children with the opportunity for personal expression, creative responses, and imaginative risk-taking. Art embraces a tacit understanding from doing and exploring allowing children a greater understanding of their sense of self and their place within the world. Our art curriculum develops children’s critical abilities, as well as an understanding of their own and others’ cultural heritages through the study of a diverse range of artists.
Our Art and Design curriculum ensures progression in knowledge, skills and vocabulary across all year groups and ensures all pupils;
- produce creative work, exploring their ideas, their intention and recording their experiences, thoughts, and ideas in different ways.
- become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture, and other art, craft and design techniques from their starting points.
- evaluate and analyse creative works including their own art, using the language of art, craft, and design
- know about artists, craft makers, and designers.
Our Christian values alongside our school mission statements ‘Dare. Discover. Do.’ are at the heart of a curriculum where all children are encouraged to reach their full potential.
Throughout their time at Ducklington, every child is given the opportunity to develop their skills in drawing, painting, printing, collage, sculpture, and textiles. This may be linked to the exploration of a key artist, craft maker, or designer and their work. Teachers follow a clear progression of skills which ensures all pupils are challenged in line with their year group expectations and are given the opportunity to build on their prior knowledge so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before to ensure children know more, remember more and can do more.
We are mindful that attainment in art is not linear but a progression is from a child’s starting point and that art is a personal response; all children have their own valid experiences, skills, likes and dislikes, their art will be created with their own intentions and the visual end result is only part of the process. Children work towards clearly defined outcomes which are sometimes linked to the topics children are learning in class.
We have links with Sculpture at Kingham Lodge and work with artists towards an exhibit at their annual sculpture exhibition. Visiting artists work with children and teachers to develop art skills and techniques.
Children use sketchbooks from Year 1 to record and explore ideas, thoughts, artists, skills and techniques. Opportunities to reflect and develop, including through the use of sketchbooks, and chances for self and peer-assessment, are planned into each unit of study in KS1 and KS2. Through discussion, the pupils explore how their art can share commonalities with famous artwork and use subject-specific vocabulary. To encourage the development of confident art critics, the pupils share their opinions and make informed observations about what will improve their own practical work.
Collaboration with Sculpture at Kingham Lodge and Visiting Artists
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We have enjoyed working with Sculpture at Kingham Lodge since 2014. In that time we have been lucky enough to take classes to visit the awe-inspiring and beautiful work exhibited in the grounds there. Our children and staff have hugely benefited from the generous support given by the organisers for resources, teacher-training and visiting artists.
Other artists we have worked regularly with
Becky Paton has helped us to design and create some lovely signs for our school and nursery.
