Art

“My name is Miss Gilbert and I am the Art subject leader at Bidston Village CE Primary School. I believe art is a very important subject as it is effective at enhancing and improving the self esteem of all our pupils. We provide all pupils with the skills and knowledge to create pieces of work they can reflect on, refine and be proud of. Our annual art gallery has been a wonderful experience for all our pupils.”

Intent

Art is an integral part of our curriculum at Bidston Village Primary School. We believe it enhances and improves the self-esteem of all of our pupils. We aim to foster a passion for creative expression by providing all pupils with the skills and knowledge to create pieces of they can reflect on, refine and be proud of. We focus on developing the pupil’s disciplinary, theoretical and practical knowledge. These areas are developed continuously throughout the school from Sunflowers to Year 6 through an exciting and detailed curriculum. We recently achieved the Artsmark Gold Award through a variety of ‘Arts’ inspired events including the annual art gallery where the children can showcase their work and feel a sense of pride and achievement.

Implementation

We have developed an ‘Essentials Curriculum’ with threshold concepts for art, based on essential characteristics that children need to develop. Children explore the same threshold concepts in every year group and gradually increase their understanding of them. These threshold concepts are explored within a breadth of different contexts. Breadth provides the contexts for exploring the threshold concepts and has two roles, knowledge and transference. As the threshold concepts are repeated in each year group it is important that pupils progress in their understanding of them. The children will develop their practical, theoretical and disciplinary knowledge throughout each topic. We use milestones for progress, with each milestone containing a range of descriptors which gives more detail to be discovered within the concept.

Impact

Our aim is for the children to be inspired by the work of famous artists, have the chance to visit local galleries or exhibitions and make community links, such as the ‘Art Award’ with the Williamson Gallery. Art is an exciting subject that can be linked to many other areas of the curriculum giving us the opportunity to create high quality display work. Art promotes spirituality by providing rich opportunities for pupils to explore both the spiritual dimension and natural phenomena. Pupils are given the opportunity to express their own big ideas about life. In addition, we measure the impact of the curriculum by assessing against the Chris Quigley milestones, pupil discussions about their learning, sketch book scrutinies and monitoring displays of pupil’s work.