Art at Eastway
Art Intent
At Eastway, we aim for our art curriculum to be:
- Well Designed and Delivered, fulfilling the requirements of the National Curriculum. We lay the foundations needed for successful learning through the robust delivery of our Eastway Matters Early Years Curriculum which is tailored to pupil's needs.
- Knowledge-Rich so that children build deep knowledge of art that they return to and build upon as they move through school.
- Closing the Gap: we carefully check children have the prior learning they need to be successful in a lesson and take action to support them fill any gaps they may have. We also check how well they are acquiring new knowledge in the lesson to adapt the lesson to their needs and provide additional support or challenge for children who need so that all children achieve our ambitious learning focus.
- Bring Learning to Life as children have real-life experiences of art in their world, including visiting local galleries.
- Develop children as active, independent learners who are Ready, Respectful, Responsible
- Love learning about art!
Art Implementation at Eastway
To achieve these aims, we have carefully mapped out exactly what children learn in each year group.
More importantly, we have mapped out exactly what knowledge will be covered in each year group so that children can recall what they have already learned and build upon it. This helps your child change their long term memory of key ideas in art as ideas are regularly returned to and deepened.
Our progression of knowledge maps children's learning so that we can be confident we are preparing your child well for the knowledge they will need when they go to secondary school.
Your child's class teacher then plans their art unit, carefully checking that your child has retained what they have learned previously and then builds upon this knowledge with new learning.
Below you will see examples of knowledge overviews.
In our art lessons at Eastway, you will see:
- Children describing and responding to artwork created by famous artists.
- Adults modelling how to hold equipment from a paint brush or mixing colours is important to our pupils’ development.
- Children making choices and producing diverse outcomes and not identical ones.
- Children expressing themselves.
- Children given time to explore and experiment with ideas and techniques without the pressure of having to create a specific, ‘finished’ piece.
- Children encouraged to talk about their work.
- Allocate time at the end of each art lesson for feedback.
- Children are reminded that in art there is no right or wrong, just your own way of doing something.
- Children developing their skills in their sketchbook and working towards an end final piece.
We have regular art competitions.
Here is the winning entries from the Halloween art competition:
Art Impact
To check your child has learned what we have intended them to, we set short tasks within lessons to see how much your child has understood and adapt our lessons from their to meet their needs. We use knowledge checkers with key facts for each lesson to help focus children's minds on the important parts of the lesson and to assess whether they have understood these.
To get a picture of what your child is retaining over time, we use the prior learning checks at the beginning of each lesson, complete quizzes at the end of each week, look at the work they have completed in their books and complete end of unit impact summaries. These reviews of learning are completed by their class teacher, our art lead and our SLT.
We will let you know how your child is getting on in art in their end of year report and will give you opportunities to see their work in their sketchbooks throughout the year.
If you would like any further information, please contact your child's class teacher or contact the school office.
