Art & DT

Welcome to our Art, Design and Technology page

Art, Design and Technology describes a way of working in which pupils respond to an opportunity to make or modify something. They use their knowledge and understanding to devise a method or solution, realise it practically and evaluate the end product and decisions taken during the process. Art, Design and Technology draw on the knowledge and skills from many other subjects.

Art is an area of the curriculum, which enables children to acquire new skills and develop their creative potential, inspiration coming from a range of other curricular activities.

In following the National Curriculum children work largely from first-hand experience. They use many different materials and techniques responding to the work of artists, craft workers and designers in various cultures, past and present.

Art & DT Gallery

Intent

Pupils at Halfway Houses Primary tend to have limited access to Art and Design Technology opportunities prior to attending our school; many factors such as local facilities, deprivation and cultural resources contribute to this. Therefore, this policy and our curriculum mapping of projects across the years and terms address our children’s needs by providing depth, breadth and balance.

Our Art Curriculum aims:

To enable children to become visually literate and understand that Art is a form of communication.
To enable children to use a wide range of media to communicate ideas and feelings.
To nurture and harness creativity and acquire and develop a range of skills and techniques.
To develop children’s capacity for imaginative and original thought and to try out ideas without the fear of failing.
To enable children through observation to learn about the world around them.
To help children learn about the role of art, craft and design in their environment and take inspiration from it.
To enable children to become independent in the planning and reviewing of their work
To enable children to develop their full potential confidently and independently.

Our Design Technology curriculum aims:

To develop imaginative thinking in children and to enable them to talk about what they like and dislike when designing and making.
To enable children to talk about how things work, and to draw and model their ideas.
To encourage children to select appropriate tools and techniques for making a product, whilst following safe procedures.
To explore attitudes towards the made world and how we live and work within it.
To develop an understanding of technological processes, products, and their manufacture, and their contribution to our society.
To foster enjoyment, satisfaction and purpose in designing and making.

Implementation

At Halfway Houses Primary School, we will ensure that Art and Design Technology is a fundamental component of our creative curriculum, by planning it in a creative and exciting manner, allowing adequate time for the teaching of key skills in Art and Design Technology, which therefore develops the breadth of the pupils’ experiences, following the guidelines laid out in the National Curriculum. The planning was created in collaboration with university professors and experienced teachers to ensure that it was progressive, innovative and built upon previous learning. In the foundation stage, we relate the creative development of the children to the objectives laid out in the EYFS documents. We also use Art and Design Technology to enrich themed days throughout the year.

Art is a hands-on activity that needs the teacher to be directly involved with the children in the lesson to set the task, to share knowledge, to lead activities, to monitor and develop the children's progress, to encourage development and to ensure that each child reaches an appropriate standard. These include using a variety of approaches that are matched to the termly theme, and cater for the range of ability of the children. Children will have the opportunity to examine natural objects, everyday artefacts, pieces of artwork, historical artefacts and their surrounding environment. We have developed clear links between art and design technology and I.C.T. opportunities. We encourage children to work individually and collaborate in pairs, in small groups and as a whole class when required. We are aiming to encourage the development of personal and social skills, being fully inclusive and giving equal access for pupils to learning opportunities, whilst ensuring that issues of Health and Safety are addressed in the planning and delivery of the art curriculum.

Through the study of Design and Technology children combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues. This allows them to reflect on and evaluate present and past design technology, its uses and its impacts. Design and Technology helps all children to become constructively critical and informed consumers and potential innovators. Children will learn to produce practical solutions to real problems whilst developing technical understanding and making skills, learning about design methods and investigating their environment and the materials around them. We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in Design Technology lessons. The principal aim is to develop children’s knowledge, skills and understanding when developing ideas, planning and making products and evaluating them. We use a balance of whole-class teaching and individual/group activities, giving children the opportunity to learn on their own and to collaborate with others. Children are encouraged to listen to the ideas of others, and treat them with respect, to critically evaluate existing products, both their own work and those of others. They have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials and resources, including ICT.

SMSC:

We believe that Art and Design Technology develops the child spiritually, morally, socially and culturally because we feel that children can experience a sense of awe and wonder, ask questions, consider the impact on themselves and their environment, develop life skills and encourage diversity and innovation.

Learning at home:

In Years One to Six, the children are encouraged to complete a project at home that relates to their current topic. This will include a selection of open-ended art and design technology-related activities. They will then share and celebrate their projects with the rest of their class and in other formats; this may include an exhibition or inviting the parents into the classroom for example.

Health and Safety:

Each teacher is responsible for teaching art and design technology in a healthy and safe environment with reference to appropriate risk assessments for activities likely to incur possible risk. The teaching staff are responsible for the supervision of activities such as cutting with scissors or a paper-cutter and using glue guns safely. All art and design technology equipment is subject to maintenance and safety checks and any faulty equipment is to be reported to the Art or DT Subject Leader. Children and staff will take care to undertake appropriate hand washing and other hygiene related activities prior to preparing food.

Resources:

There is a wide range of resources to support the teaching of art and design technology across the school. Classrooms have a store of basic resources. Specialist resources and equipment are stored in the art room and/or with the year leader for specific topic-related items. Sketchbooks will be given to each pupil throughout the school so that they can be taught to use sketchbooks effectively, and will be encouraged to share and celebrate their artwork with their families on a more regular basis. These will be used to showcase both Art and Design Technology throughout the year so that their learning journey is clear and easily tracked.

The Early Years Foundation Stage:

At Halfway Houses Primary School we encourage creative work in the reception classes as this is part of the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum. We relate the creative development of the children to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals, which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five. The children’s learning includes art, music, dance, role-play and imaginative play. The range of experience encourages children to make connections between one area of learning and another and so extends their understanding. We provide a rich environment in which we encourage and value creativity. Children experience a wide range of activities that they respond to, using the various senses. We give them the opportunity to work alongside artists and other adults. The activities that they take part in are imaginative and enjoyable.

Within the Foundation Stage we run continuous provision, where children have free access to all resources and opportunities, allowing them to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding at their own pace and interest. We relate the creative development of the children to the points set out in the Foundation Stage Profile, as well as the age related expectations in Development Matters which underpin the curriculum planning for children from birth to five and effectively promote in-the-moment planning that places the child at the centre of the process of learning. The children’s learning includes art, music, dance, role-play and imaginative play. The range of experiences encourages children to make connections between one area of learning and another and so extends their understanding.

Key Stage One:

During Key Stage 1, art and design technology is about developing children's creativity and imagination through providing art, craft and design activities that relate to children's own identities and experiences, the natural and made objects and materials with which they are familiar and the locality in which they live. They explore how familiar things work and talk about, draw and model their ideas. They learn how to design and make safely and could start to use ICT as part of their designing and making.

Key Stage Two:

During Key Stage 2, Art and Design Technology is about developing children's creativity and imagination by building on their knowledge, skills and understanding of materials and processes through providing more complex activities. Children's experiences help them to develop their understanding of the diverse roles and functions of art and design in the locality and in the wider world.

During each year, three genres of art are taught which may include: drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles and sculpture to include clay work. These areas are taught under the umbrella title of each topic. Three genres of design technology are taught which may include: food technology, textiles, mechanisms, model making and product design. These areas are also taught under the umbrella title of each topic.

As the children progress through the school, they will revisit skills and concepts so that these can become embedded and form a learning memory platform.

Differentiation

We recognise the fact that we have children of differing ability in all our classes, and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies:

Setting common tasks that are open-ended and can have a variety of responses.

Setting tasks of increasing difficulty where not all children complete all tasks.
Grouping children by ability and setting different tasks for each group.
Providing a range of challenges with different resources.
Using additional adults to support the work of individual children or small groups

Impact

Role of the Subject Leader:

To purchase and organise the appropriate art and design technology resources.
To support colleagues in the teaching of art and design technology.
To keep up-to-date on the use of Art and Design Technology in the curriculum and regularly update their own subject knowledge using CPD opportunities.
To monitor Teaching and Learning and the standards of children’s work.
To regularly review and update the Art Policy and contribute to the school’s self-evaluation programme including Artsmark.

Assessment is carried out in accordance with our Assessment Policy in the Class Foundation Subject Booklet. On-going teacher assessment ensures that skills are developed and progress is made in the area of Art and Design Technology. At the end of each unit children from Y1-Y6 are assessed against Key Learning Objectives identified by the Art and DT subject leader that ensure we track the progress of children and monitor and evaluate their achievement. In Reception, children are assessed by teacher observations against the Foundation Profile criteria.

The class teacher also evaluates each child’s skills by their use of a sketchbook. All children are encouraged to develop the habit of using these, primarily for developing ideas for their work and for working out ideas, plans and designs; but also for recording, exploring and storing visual information which can be readily retrieved and used as reference. The class teacher can look back and reflect on the content and judge which they can use to further develop ideas, skills and understanding. It is important to extend children’s skills and allow them to practise regularly.

Displaying children’s work well also plays a positive part in the appraisal of the Art and Design work in the school; this gives it value and reminds the children what has been achieved and enables them to share and talk about their work with others. As a form of real assessment, this gives the class teacher opportunities to focus on the different ways the children may have responded to the theme or starting point. Thus, the public display of Art and Design Technology including Home Learning Projects (and other curriculum areas) of each year group is much more than just a way of making the school look attractive; it also demonstrates the sequence and development of what has been learnt throughout the two key stages.