Art

What is Art and why is it important?

Art is the study of drawing, painting, sculpting, and designing, alongside creative and critical thinking. When we look at the world that surrounds us, our eyes are bombard by visual delights. From the Billard board that is advertising the latest trend, the teenager wearing the trainers that are currently in ‘vogue’ or our neighbour's new electric car; someone had to show imagination, creativity and skill to design and make what we see. We teach art in school to expose students to discover their ability, skill, and enjoyment in the subject, so they can potentially develop into the next fashion designer, graphic designer, skilled tattoo artist or architect to name a few career opportunities. 

What do students learn in Art?  

Students start with the foundations of art and focus on the formal elements. We work on each formal element individually to build their knowledge and understanding and begin the journey of mastering these transferable skills when using varied materials, processes, and techniques. As students work their way through the years, they are introduced to new materials and processes and revisit each formal element, developing their subject knowledge and continue to develop the mastery of skills. 

Students are taught and encouraged to: 

• Be engaged with artwork from diverse cultures and different eras. 
• Form opinions and respond to artwork. 
• Think conceptually about the work of others and their own outcomes.  
• Make connections with other subjects and the ‘real world’ in the task that they are completing.  
• Initiate innovative ideas. 
• Express ideas in unique ways and form diverse perspectives. 
• See mistakes as opportunities to learn. 
• Problem solves through reasoning and understanding.  
• Understand and appreciate where persistence can get you. 

Summary of curriculum content 

Link to Learning Journey

• Year 7 – Students learn fundamental skills using the formal elements. They study many different artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Andre Derain, Henri Matisse and other cultures. Students will use a variety of materials including drawing materials, painting materials and inks.  

• Year 8 – Students will use the skills learnt from year 7 and be introduced to new skills such as clay work, acrylic painting, portraiture and block printing. They will study a variety of artists such as Sarah Graham, Wayne Thiebaud, Joel Penkman and Roa.  

• Year 9 – Students will deepen their understanding of observational drawing using objects and many different tonal drawing materials. Their projects are Natural form and Shapes. They will research different artists including Georgia O’Keeffe, Karl Blossfeldt, Dennis Wojtkiewicz, Sarah Graham, Beatriz Milhazes and Ian Murphy and understand how to produce work in response to the artists they choose. Throughout this year students will try a huge range of materials considering the materials their chosen artists use.  

• Year 10 – Students focus on a Portraiture project called Strike a Pose, where they can learn the skills of how to draw a successful portrait considering proportions and formal elements. Students create a range of portraits in response to Bisa Butler, Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman. This year allows students to learn skills they haven’t before including fabric collage, screenprinting and painting on a large scale canvas.  

• Year 11 – Students will produce an independent project at the beginning of the year before they move on to their Exam work in the spring term where they will be independently researching artists, take photoshoots and creating work in response to those artists and using their creativity to come up with a final outcome and document this along the way.  

Challenge and support in Art 

The Art department set tasks that students believe are out of reach of their ability or skill range, but we know will be achievable through responsive teaching. We then build their confidence by breaking tasks down, modelling, teaching the tasks success criteria, using peer and self-assessment, giving verbal, and written feedback, and providing lots of praise. When completing the task students realise, they can achieve so much more than they first believed they could. We challenge and expose our students to ideas and artwork that make them not just think about the aesthetics of what they are producing but also consider the concept of their work, whether it be spiritual, moral, social, or cultural. 

How is Art assessed?  

In Key Stage 3 we mark our students work holistically so their progress and hard work is taken into consideration throughout the year. Throughout the project there is a dialogue on how to reach these various targets and an indication of what grade they are achieving. Students are guided and given advise how to reach the next grade or beyond, until the project is finished.   

In Key Stage 4 students work towards attaining a GCSE qualification in Art and Design. A broad range of skills and techniques are developed and explored; students work towards being fully independent in their practice. Students strive to meet the four assessment objectives provided by the exam board Edexcel for both coursework and exam. Student are given verbal and written feedback to guide them to meet the assessment objectives. 

Learning beyond the classroom 

Details of EE clubs 

• Ceramic club: This club is held weekly and is an opportunity to develop further skills than what is taught in the classroom. 

• Set design: This is where we create the set for the school production or musical. Students get to experiment working collaboratively and are given a little taster of the set design industry. 

Home learning in Art 

In KS4 students will get weekly assignments that link to coursework that they are completing in the lesson. We have an open-door policy in Art and students can complete this work during any break/lunch if they wish to use the school facilities to complete this. 

Where can Art lead?