Art
What is the Art Curriculum rationale at St Mary’s?
The AccessArt curriculum is designed to help primary schools deliver a rich and exciting visual arts curriculum which meets the needs of the current National Curriculum for Art. It enables teachers to grow in understanding, experience and confidence when teaching art, by supporting staff in how best to teach visual arts. By creating a bench mark for excellence in art teaching, schools can be proud of their creative curriculum, and pupils and teachers can enjoy the journey and outcomes.
Our emphasis is on journey of teaching and learning which empowers teachers and pupils to become confident creative decision makers. Teachers and pupils can GROW with our curriculum, and to help that happen there are clear structures and access to resources which help teachers understand the WHY as well as the HOW. It is designed around the idea that art is far more than a series of technical skills, our holistic curriculum nurtures creative thinking skills and helps ensure your pupils learn through art, as well as about art.
The new AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum is knowledge-rich, and pupils will learn a wide range of skills, developing understanding and showing clear progression. But crucially, the knowledge and understanding pupils will build will go far beyond the technical, factual knowledge many current curriculums focus upon. Our curriculum balances declarative knowledge with experiential knowledge, building self-knowledge and nurturing traits in learners which will hold them in good stead whichever direction their learning takes them. The AccessArt Curriculum is about OPENING UP what art is, giving pupils have lots of different kinds of opportunities and experiences (media, techniques, approaches, artists), all underpinned by creative use of drawing and sketchbooks.
Each pathway contains suggested “I Can…” statements which are used to check understanding. Each pathway also forms a journey, for both teacher and pupil. Each pathway follows a particular format which promotes excellent teaching & learning: - Warm-up: Artists: Activity: Crit / Reflection - Artists: Materials: Activity: Crit / Reflection - Challenge or Brief: Artist: Activity: Crit / Reflection. We study artists, designers and craftspeople not so we can make copies of their style, but so we can learn from the way they see the world.
Learning is built through a weaving and layering and revisiting of experience across their time at St Mary’s. Each pathway follows a repeated rhythm, providing lots of time to balance repeated practice with new experiences, quiet approaches with active and dynamic activities, time to work alone with collaborative and community based activities, all geared to create energy and momentum throughout the year. Through Drawing and Sketchbooks, Print, Colour, Collage, Working in three Dimensions, Paint, surface and textures.