Our Kildwick Curriculum  

At Kildwick CE VC Primary School we value the individuality of all our children, irrespective of  ethnicity, attainment, age, disability, gender or background. We are committed to giving all our  children every opportunity to achieve the highest of standards in all that they do, underpinned by  our deeply Christian ethos. We do this by taking account of pupils’ varied life experiences and needs.  We provide our children with an exciting and creative curriculum, in which many subjects are taught  through themes. This thematic approach to teaching and learning inspires our children and engages  them in their learning. We encourage children to be inquisitive learners and ask questions, offering  them the opportunity to consolidate and revisit previous learning in order to deepen understanding  and create life -long learners. Their achievements, attitudes and well-being matter and we offer  them the opportunity to discover their gifts and talents given to them by God and experience ‘life in  all its fullness’ (John 10:10).  

Kildwick Art and Design Curriculum Intent Statement 

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” - Maya Angelou

“I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way- things I had no words for.” - Georgia O’Keefe 

Young children are their art. Their individuality and creativity flows through everything they do. It is our intention at Kildwick to develop this natural desire for self-expression in Art and Design by providing stimulating and inspiring opportunities across a range of art experiences. Underlying our intention too is an awareness of the role of artistic expression in enhancing self-esteem and well being. 

Engaging activities will equip the children with the knowledge and skills to develop their art work.  Exploring a range of materials, equipment, media and techniques, children will learn to follow their  curiosity to try new effects and to take risks. Children will learn the skills of drawing, painting,  printing, collage, textiles, 3D work and digital art to develop their range of expression.  

With a progressive tool-kit of skills, knowledge and understanding and exciting projects to trigger their imagination children will learn to express their ideas with freedom and enthusiasm within a rich cross-curricular approach, exploring, experimenting, creating and inventing becoming  resourceful and innovative.  

Children will be encouraged to reflect on and evaluate their own work and that of others. They will be introduced to a range of art works and styles and explore the work of artists from different periods and cultures and begin to understand how art impacts and enhances society and our  surroundings.

Implementation

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow  up.”

Pablo Picasso 

Teachers plan lessons using our Progression Document and Knowledge Organisers to ensure skills, knowledge and  understanding build year on year. The Knowledge Organisers in particular ensure projects are inspiring and exciting, stimulating and relevant to the children’s interests and enthusiasms. They ensure children can build on their skills within a project to produce an individual and creative response to the stimuli provided.

Each term teachers inspire the children to explore and extend their skills, knowledge and  understanding in two different areas across drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles,  sculpture/3D and art through technology in a rolling programme. These may be used as two stages along the development of one project or two discrete projects. Introduction to the project will  stimulate curiosity with sensory stimuli or ideas which capture the children’s imagination and will  involve skills, media exploration before engaging in their finished piece of art work in response.  Teachers will recognise that in developing children’s individuality it is important to proceed flexibly  to enhance the children’s creativity. Projects may be blocked across a 1/ 2 week period or build  across the term as appropriate. Drawing is likely to form part of the termly projects but throughout  school children will complete drawing tasks using a variety of media and techniques regularly. Our knowledge organisers will provide a wealth of innovative starting points. 

Sketch books will be used across school to explore and investigate ideas, media, and techniques to develop observational drawings and representations of imaginary worlds. By annotating sketches, the older children will begin to use sketchbooks to map out their responses. 

Children will learn about a range of artists, designers and crafts people, art movements and styles  across time and cultures. Links will be made to their own projects but children will also study an  artist in depth and use their observations and understanding to inspire their own art work. 

Recognising children’s natural curiosity and desire to express their understanding of their  experiences creatively, art and design will be a celebrated means of communicating ideas across all  areas of the curriculum, apparent in Topic Books, RE scrapbooks etc and also encouraged for their  personal fun and expression in their play, hobbies etc. Art forms a central part of our Themed  activity days where children work across the school in their Core Value groups eg Mental Health Day,  RE Day. An after school art club also takes place weekly. 

Impact 

Children will be stimulated and excited to express themselves across a range of art activities. They will bring to their art work the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to express themselves  creatively. They will confidently explore and take risks having fun trying out new and innovative  ideas and learn to develop their ideas across a pathway of carefully planned, engaging projects. 

School and classroom displays will celebrate the children’s work including pop up displays in class at  the end of a project to give opportunities to share, discuss and enjoy the children’s creativity. Alongside work in progress and sketch books these provide opportunities to evaluate the impact of  the project and across the year/ school the impact of the Art Design curriculum on the the children’s  creative development at Kildwick. 

Photographs of the projects saved within Google Classroom or the online Kildwick Art Gallery  showing the development of projects will also provide opportunities to reflect on the impact of the  projects and the development across the year groups.