Learning within art, craft and design stimulates creativity and imagination. It provides visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a special way of understanding and responding to the world. A high-quality art and design education should inspire, engage and challenge children - enabling pupils to communicate what they see, feel and think through the use of colour, texture, form and pattern. 

Children will become involved in shaping their environment through art and design activities, involving different creative techniques. They will explore ideas and meaning through the work of artists and designers. Additionally, as they learn about the history, roles and functions of art, they can explore the impact that it has on contemporary life and that of different times and cultures.

Aims: The National Curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:

1. Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
2. Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
3. Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
4. Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

At St Anne’s, we will achieve this by:

• Teaching art regularly. The children will cover an art topic at least once every other term and will also have additional opportunities to engage with art and design activities throughout the school year. 
• Linking art as closely as possible to the topic for the term, to ensure relevance and context.
• Teaching a predominantly skills-based curriculum, which covers drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles. Full details of our art curriculum can be found in our progression of skills – whole school plan document. 
• Re-teaching skills throughout the children’s time in school. Skills are revisited and honed in a spiral curriculum, which progresses in terms of depth and challenge, to build on the children’s previous learning. 
• Ensuring that each child develops their skills and techniques in a way appropriate to them, through clear differentiation and support, active and purposeful experiences, and using a variety of art materials and teaching strategies. 
• Introducing children to artists and art movements directly linked to the skills or topics they are covering.
• Utilising a sketchbook approach, so that children feel safe to experiment and take risks, without the fear of doing something “wrong”. 
• Openly promoting art and design as a possible further study or career choice. 
• Encouraging each child to evaluate their art and design work and that of others, both with peers and adults.
• Celebrating effort, progress and achievement in art through displays, exhibitions and enrichment activities, such as trips out and competitions.

By the end of their time with us, we want pupils to have learnt, improved and embedded a range of artistic skills. They should have an awareness of a broad range of artists and craftspeople, and be able to consider and discuss the artworks they come across. We want our pupils to be confident to explore, experiment and take risks, placing value on the process and journey that they take, not just on the finished product. Most importantly, we want children to have found and enjoyed a creative outlet – a means of self-expression and enjoyment.