Art and Design

Intent Statement

At Fairlight Primary and Nursey School, we value Art and Design as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum.  We recognise that it stimulates creativity and imagination and provides the children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thought and ideas. 

Our intentions for the Art curriculum, as detailed in the national Curriculum, are:

• For children to produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.
• To support children in becoming proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.
• To develop skills that allow children to evaluate and analyse work using appropriate language.
• To gain knowledge about great artists, craft-makers and designers and the impact of their art forms.

Implementation

At Fairlight Primary and Nursery we will achieve this by:

• Teaching art regularly. The children will cover an art topic at least once a term.  We ensure they have opportunities to master our key techniques (drawing, painting, collage, printing, sculpture, textiles and digital media) at least once in each phase of the school (e.g. across Year 1 and 2).  They will then revisit these skills as they progress through their time at Fairlight to build on their previous learning.  Teaching, as a result, is predominantly through a skill-based curriculum.
• Teaching the key skills of drawing and painting in every year group.
• We link art as closely to our topics as possible to ensure relevance and context.
• Children are allowed to develop their skills and techniques in a way appropriate to them – through clear adaptation and support. See our ‘Adaptive teaching in the Foundation Subjects at Fairlight’ document.
• Utilising a sketchbook approach, so that children feel safe to experiment and take risks. See our ‘Welcome to your sketchbook’ inside cover for further details.
• Introducing the children to artists and art movements directly linked to the skills and topics they are covering.
• Encouraging children to share and evaluate their art and design work with peers and adults.
• Celebrating effort, progress and achievement in art through displays around the school as well as additional enrichment activities (e.g. mosaic workshop, Same Sky Children’s Parade, Fabrica workshops, Snail Trail/Shaun the Sheep sculptures for Macmillan).

Impact

By the time children leave Fairlight Primary and Nursery, we want children to have learned, improved and embedded a range of artistic skills.  They should have encountered a broad range of artists and craftspeople and be able to consider and discuss the artworks they have come across.  We want our pupils to be confident enough to explore and experiment – using our learning superheroes to guide them.  We want them to place value on the journey and processes that they take – and not just on the finished outcomes.  Above all, we want children to enjoy art as a means of self-expression and as a creative outlet.

Every year we take part in the Children's Parade - part of the annual Brighton Festival.  We always have a theme, build a 'big make' sculpture to carry on the day and dress up.  Here are some of our images from the past few years...