At Bond, we believe that art has an important role in all children’s education, and is cross-curricularly connected, with valuable enrichment opportunities planned that enrich learners’ cultural capital, as well as promoting an understanding of their own and others’ cultural heritages.

At Bond, art knowledge is defined as the ‘curriculum objects’ - the concepts and principles which pupils will acquire through their study of the subject. It is not about memorising disconnected facts. We also understand that knowledge in art can be either productive or receptive. Productive knowledge relates to becoming proficient in the aspects of art or producing art, whereas receptive knowledge relates to pupils learning about aspects of art.

The three main domain of art knowledge include both productive and receptive knowledge. Children will develop their practical knowledge of how to create art by learning the methods and techniques used by artists, craft-makers, and designers. They will also learn the theoretical knowledge of the tools, materials, and history of the subject. In addition, pupils will learn the disciplinary knowledge of art, such as the ways in which it is judged, valued, and evaluated.

Children will develop their understanding of the visual language of art with effective teaching and considered sequences of lessons and experiences. Understanding of the visual elements of art and design (line, tone, texture, colour, pattern, shape, 3D forms) will be developed by providing a connected, creative curriculum that challenges their intellectual resilience, while also being creatively demanding.

In the high-quality art curriculum that we aspire for at Bond, we aim at including Western and non-Western traditions of art, in order to allow all children to access relevant examples of diversity in art.

How we Teach Art 

 

In the first phase of a new unit of work, children will understand the life and selected artworks of the spotlighted artist, using visual literacy exploration to uncover knowledge and meaning that is coded into the artwork. Pupils’ contributions and questions will populate the art working wall in their classroom, which will be regularly referenced during their art learning.

Key vocabulary is carefully and progressively embedded over time, so not to trigger cognitive overload: presentations include no more than 5 key terms, whereas the working wall offers a terminology overview; specific prompts and scaffolds, including word banks may be tailored to reflect the EAL and New Arrival needs of a specific class.

Still in the first phase, ‘Endpoints’ overviews will be featured in the art sketchbooks, which outline what children will know and be able to explain at the end of the unit, which are linked to the summative assessment cycle.

Knowledge organisers provide definitions and accompanying visuals for key concepts, ensuring accessibility, metacognition and independence to all.

Phase 2:

During the early stages of second phase of the unit of learning, children will be given opportunities to develop an insight into the theoretical and disciplinary concepts that pertain to key elements of the artwork in study, which will inform the practical choices children will make when they explore specific tools and techniques in their own original creative processes. At Bond, children know very well that their artwork has to be original and is informed by their theoretical knowledge research.

During this second phase, children are also given an opportunity to make choices based on what they know about the potential and limitations of materials and media, from a practical knowledge perspective, as well as issues concerning the norms, products and purposes of art.

Towards the end of this phase, children might then analyse playful claims and tentative propositions about art, as a way to challenge their intellectual skills in the disciplinary domain of art knowledge.

At Bond, children are given regular opportunities to reflect on how their current learning relates to previous learning, and what they specifically already know about the new topic or concept.  As a result, the teacher has a clear insight into the children’s ‘starting points’ for the topic, which, in turn, informs subsequent planning and assessment.

One aspect we are trialling in Spring Term 2024 concerns children being asked what they would like to know and class responses will be collated and used to inform the programme of study to ensure an aspect of ‘focussed interest planning’. A record of this process will be documented in children’s sketchbooks.

Within all lessons, teachers plan a phase of progressive questioning which extends to and promotes the higher order thinking of all learners, using the Bloom’s Taxonomy Teaching Planning Kit. The questions that teachers ask ought to also develop children’s metacognition, as well as focusing on the children’s own work and how they might change or create an outcome, and justify a choice they have made which is be identified on their evaluation.

Phase 3:

The last phase of the learning journey is metacognitive in essence, as it is when children look back at what they have learnt, produced and innovated. At this point, they will evaluate their artwork, comparing and contrasting with it their peers’ artworks and that of significant past and contemporary artists, allowing them to identify common themes and explain how art was studied, discussed, and judged throughout the topic.

At the end of the topic, children will write a summary of what they know according to the key knowledge “endpoint” statements identified on the school’s progression map for Art. Teachers support the children and scaffold this ‘knowledge summary’ as appropriate, according to the children’s age group, as well as individual needs. This process is used to consolidate the key knowledge of the topic and each strand of knowledge included in the “endpoints” is highlighted.

 

 

 At the beginning of each unit of work, pupils will study an artist, their work, style, skills and lives, before using those techniques to explore work more widely. In 2023-24 Bond Primary are working to ensure we go beyond the most familiar aspects of Art & look at further aspects such as performance, installation, discussion & photography/ lens based media.

https://www.accessart.org.uk/start-here-drawing/