Art and Design

At St John the Baptist, Art and Design is an integral part of the Primary curriculum. It gives children the skills and knowledge to respond to ideas and experiences in a visual or tactile form. It enhances a child’s imagination and is a fundamental means of personal expression.

Our Art and design Curriculum is designed around the idea that art is far more than a series of technical skills as it nurtures creative thinking skills and helps ensure our pupils learn through art, as well as about art.

In lesson we focus on fostering children’s individual creativity and developing their own artistic style. Children at St John The Baptist School will have the opportunity to explore a variety of skills including sketching, printing, illustrating, painting and sculpture which are built on as they progress through each year group. Within each art topic, children will study influential artists and develop an understanding of how art contributes to and reflects cultures around the world.

Art offers a unique perspective to understand and respond to the world we live in. It can challenge conceptions, develop new thinking, and nurture ideas. It is so much more than making a finished product. Art and design embodies some of the highest forms of human creativity. At St john The Baptist Catholic Primary School our art engages, inspires, and challenges our children equipping them with knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create. We explore how art has contributed to our cultures, shaped our history and inspired and influenced the modern world. We aim to promote a lifelong interest and enjoyment in the visual arts in the broadest sense.

In our foundation stage, Reception class, the development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression and vocabulary.

We want children to feel confident to explore their imagination in both 2D and 3D forms. We want children to develop skills using a variety of media and investigate how different materials work.

It is our aim that by the time every child leaves primary school they can feel as if they have found an area of the visual arts that is relevant and engaging to them.

In The Foundation stage children learn:

· explore colour and what they see around them

· build worlds using a range of 2d and 3d materials

· use their imaginations to explore mark making and communication through the arts.

In Key Stage 1 children will learn:

· to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products,

· to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination,

· to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space,

· about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, and

· to describe the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and make links to their own work.

In Key Stage 2 children will learn:

· to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas,

· to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials (such as pencil, charcoal, paint or clay), and

· about great artists, architects and designers working today and in the past.