Art

Intent

At Waterfield, we value Art and Design as an essential part of a rich, balanced curriculum. Our intent is to nurture every child’s creativity, independence, resilience, and ability to reflect on their own work. We aim to equip all children with the key skills, techniques, and knowledge needed to confidently create their own drawings, paintings, sculptures, and crafts.​

We want our children to develop a natural sense of curiosity and wonder as they explore a wide range of artistic styles and works. Through discovering significant artists and designers, pupils learn to appreciate both their own cultural heritage and that of others.​

At Waterfield, we prioritise the creative process. We give children the time and freedom to experiment, explore new ideas, and enjoy the sensations and possibilities of making art without pressure to be perfect. By creating a safe, supportive environment, we enable children to feel confident, happy, and inspired to produce their most imaginative work.

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Implementation

The Art Curriculum sequentially builds children’s knowledge and skills by revisiting three key themes annually.

• Drawing
• Colour and Pattern
• 3D

Sketchbooks are used throughout the school, to carefully record key points of their art curriculum, charting the progression of skills and allowing children to celebrate and evaluate their own journey as Artists.

In the Early Years the focus is on exploration and children are encouraged to express their ideas and explore creativity through using a variety of materials, tools and techniques; experimenting with colour, textures, patterns and form within individual and collaborative activities both inside and outside the classroom.

In KS1 and KS2  this progresses into experiencing a growing range of media such as developing drawing and painting skills, using printmaking and sculpture to make products and artwork both individually and collaboratively. From KS1 the children have sketch-books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas throughout their learning journey at Waterfield. The emphasis is on improving mastery when developing skills and various techniques in drawing, painting, sculpture,  printmaking and digital art.

Through studying real artists all children are exposed to people that model learning behaviours that we wish to encourage; resilience, communication and taking creative risks are a few that the arts can demonstrate. We carefully balance studying artists from the Old Masters to The Impressionists to more contemporary living global artists who can be contacted through social media to enthuse our children further.  All of these have value within our diverse art curriculum.