Art

Intent

At Manor Park Infant and Nursery School, we believe Art and Design plays an integral role in the education of all children. From the Early Years Foundation Stage into Key Stage 1 children are encouraged to use their creativity, curiosity and critical thinking skills in developing an awareness, appreciation and enjoyment of art in all of its forms. Art and culture enrich our lives greatly and we want our children to have the skills, techniques and knowledge to work confidently as independent artists. We study influential artists and craftspeople to provide a context to compare and contrast our own work with, further deepening our evaluation and communication skills.

Teaching and Learning Styles

Manor Park Infant and Nursery Primary School uses a variety of teaching and learning styles in art and design lessons. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding. We ensure that the act of investigating and making includes exploring and developing ideas, and evaluating and developing work. We do this best through a mixture of whole-class teaching and individual/group activities. Teachers draw attention to good examples of individual performance as models for the other children. They encourage children to evaluate their own ideas and methods, and the work of others, and say what they think and feel about them. We give children the opportunity within lessons to work on their own and to collaborate with others, on projects in two and three dimensions and on different scales. Children also have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials and resources, including ICT.

At Manor Park Infant and Nursery School, art often links to our topics for that term. We see this as a fundamental way of understanding and communicating ideas about the world and human experiences and therefore its potential to enhance learning, particularly in history and geography. Artists and designers are carefully chosen to focus on which link to our topics and act as a stimulus for art activities covering new skills and techniques.

Curriculum and Planning for Art & Design

In the Foundation Stage, the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five. The children’s learning includes art, music, dance, role-play and imaginative play. The range of experience encourages children to make connections between one area of learning and another and so extends their understanding.

In Key Stage 1, we use the National Curriculum programme of study for Art and Design as the basis for our curriculum planning with ideas drawn from different sources. We have adapted the programme to fit the local context and requirements of our school. Our skills ladders have an ambitious progression from ages 3-7 which covers drawing, painting, printing, textiles, sculpture, collage and digital art.

In Foundation Stage - pupils learn to:

• Explore and use media and materials:

Sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them.

• Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
• To be imaginative: use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes.
• Represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role-play and stories.
• Learn key vocabulary associated with Art and Design.

In Key Stage 1 - pupils learn to:

• Use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
• Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences. 
• To use drawing, painting, printing, textiles, sculpture, collage and digital art.
• Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
• Know about the work of great artists, craft makers and designers, e.g. studying historical architects such as Christopher Wren and contemporary sculptors such as Kaori Kurihara.
• Create a piece of work in response to another artist’s work.
• Learn key vocabulary associated with Art and Design.