Art

Intent 

At St Mark’s CE Primary School, we recognise the importance of developing an exciting, inspiring, creative curriculum that promotes imagination, thinking, innovation and a love of art, craft and design. We are passionate about providing experiences that all children can access that develops skills, knowledge, appreciation and enjoyment of art.  As a result of our unique integrated curriculum, children have the opportunity to express themselves artistically in a range of subjects including English, DT, RE, History and Geography. This allows children to communicate their learning, express their personal responses and make links between subjects across the curriculum.  In line with the National Curriculum, we believe that art education should ‘engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design’, in the context of their learning and in their lives beyond school.  

We understand that Art is not solely focused on producing material but the skills and progression the children have gained and made during the making process. Children should leave our school with a variety of artistic skills and knowledge; the ability and willingness to take creative risks and inspiration to express themselves creatively, which will ensure they can continue to develop their creative abilities and skills for future learning. 

Implementation 

Art at St Mark’s CE Primary School is experienced as part of our integrated curriculum.  We believe that this approach captivates children’s creativity. The works they produce are related to something familiar that they have been learning about and become intrigued by. 

Our art planning offers ambitious opportunities for children to gain a number of different artistic skills from a range of different artists. We encourage children to think deeply about the open ended possibilities of how they can present their artistic skills, for example, through paint, pastels, clay, pencils, chalk and many more. We promote a passion for accessible art, which allows all children to be inspired by art that they encounter in the wider world and develop an appreciation for the wide variety of different mediums.   We encourage children to appreciate the art they encounter and nurture the sense of awe and wonder.  We aim to equip our children with the skills and knowledge they need to develop their creative abilities, as well as teaching the children about the history behind the art and artist we are studying.  

Our inclusive art planning focuses on the application of the artistic skills needed and the progression the children will make throughout the projects, leading to the end result. We encourage children to have passion in the making of art and the skilful steps needed to reach their final creations (painting, drawing, tracing, sculpture). 

Our art planning and lessons incorporate many of our schools' learning values. Art allows the children to be creative learners.  The children learn how to be independent, through the progress they make and the knowledge they gain, they produce art that captures their own independent creativity. We encourage art to be open ended and the children’s own work. Spirituality is also a vital component of art learning; we expect our children to be active participants in their learning by posing and responding to thoughtful questions about what they are learning and their place in the world.