At Cotmanhay Junior School, we aim to provide all children with high quality art education that engages and inspires them to develop confidence in expressing their ideas, emotions, thoughts and responses to the world through visual means. We intend to teach children to become proficient across a range of disciplines including drawing, painting, sculpture and mixed media, and to inspire an appreciation for and respect of different artistic perspectives, thereby opening up a wider world of opportunity and multicultural celebration.
During their lessons, children will be taught to use a language of visual elements - line, shape, form, tone, texture, colour and pattern - in order to create their own works of art, and to reflect on the value it brings to their own lives, the community and the wider world. We have a dedicated art studio at Cotmanhay Junior School with plenty of natural light, and children work both individually and as collaborative groups on the tasks set. There are at least three art and design projects taught across each year group to ensure a breadth of curriculum study with progressive knowledge, skills, facts and vocabulary carefully mapped. Specific attention is paid to ensuring that children learn about artists of different ages, genders and cultural backgrounds in order to maximise equity and combat historical discrimination.
Children complete Key Stage 2 understanding that art and design is vehicle for their personal expression and a tool for their wellbeing. Children understand themselves as artists in their own right with a unique view on the world that is worthy of a wider audience. They have secure knowledge of a range of art genres, and are able to identify a variety of artists and artistic movements from past and present across the globe. Year 6 children will leave primary school having developed increased precision and control in their own work over the four years of study in readiness for Key Stage 3, with the confidence to discuss art and design with their peers.
We measure the impact of our art curriculum through the following methods:
We share and celebrate children's accomplishments in art and design through display in school, assemblies and community events, whole school homework tasks and competitions.