Subject Co-ordinator: Mrs Roussell

“Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it."

Pope John Paul II

Intent

Art at St Polycarp’s will 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. Children learn a broad range of skills and knowledge which is progressive across the school. At St Polycarp’s we aim to foster a culture of creativity and exploration through developing ideas from starting points into personalised projects and outcomes.

Approach

Our progress objectives are broken down into four main aims:

• Making skills
• Generating ideas
• Knowledge 
• Evaluation 

All pupils have their own personalised art journal, which is put at the centre of their creativity

• Children use their art journals to record their art journeys
• They will contain experimentation, research, photographs, and reflections, showing ideas and development
• They are a place of discovery and rejected ideas (mistakes) are an essential part of the learning process
• Children are taught to ‘value every mark’.

Pupils are guided by teachers but have freedom to be creative through choice of medium and materials and have opportunities to discuss and critique each other’s work to develop it further. We use curriculum linked units of work from Access Art.  We also use The National Society for Education in Art and Design.

Challenge and Support

We gain support from a network of local artists from within our parent community as well as those who have exhibited their work in local galleries.  These artists run workshops within specific year groups which allow children to practice artistic skills as well as see how art and design can be applied within the world of work.  We also work with tutors and students from art departments in local schools, either sending groups of children to visit a working art studio or inviting tutors to come and lead lessons with children.

Challenge is created within lessons by asking children to apply their making skills in a broader concept showing they have built on previous learning, expecting children to independently make purposeful and sensible decisions about materials and mediums and to confidently interpret, explain and evaluate the work of significant artists as well as their own.