Art at Stoke Park Infant School

Intent

“Creativity is intelligence having fun!” – Albert Einstein

What do we want Art to look like at Stoke Park Infant School?

-Children doing!  We want children to participate and engage in the experience of art.

-Children showing that they are enthused and excited by their application of art and creativity.

 -Children have opportunities to apply previously learned skills and to build on them.

-Children applying their learned skills to their own ideas and creativity.

-Children making decisions, pre-planning, adapting, and showing resilience in the application of their art.

-Children have opportunities to explore and respond to works by famous artists.

-Children use their knowledge and skills from other areas of the curriculum to help guide and influence their creativity. This could be in the form of measures and perspectives from maths, mapping skills from geography, anatomy from science, plus many other disciplines.

-Children build their confidence through their expression and creativity.

-Children gain mindfulness through creativity, enhancing their well-being, as well as building on their life skills, including the characteristics of effective learning from their early year's education.

-Children gain a deeper understanding of the need to practise a skill many times in order to improve and perfect their work.

Some interesting videos to show children that a skill takes time and lots of practise:

I painted the same thing in 1, 10 and 100 hours #shorts - YouTube

My Art Progress ❤ Age 9 - 20 - YouTube

-Children have opportunities to learn and progress their skills in all areas of art, including drawing, colour, texture, form, printing, and pattern.

Implementation:

“Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and love of play.” – Henri Matisse

How do we implement a curriculum that encourages progression, creativity, and positive wellbeing?

Sylvia Plath once wrote, ‘The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt’, which can be said of many subjects in the national curriculum.  However, at Stoke Park, we want to squash that self-doubt and replace it with the confidence to create without fear.  We teach for the journey and experience of art, not necessarily for the end product.  As with any subject, mistakes make us better learners, for perfection is not only unobtainable but also hinders our journey for self-improvement.  Therefore, when we teach Art, it is with the aim of providing the best possible experiences for children to not only enjoy but also inspire a child’s desire to want to create for their own personal growth.

To achieve this outcome:

-Children are taught through a spiral curriculum, whereby they are given opportunities to return to previously learnt skills and to then build on them.

-Children are taught using the pedagogy that is demonstrated in ‘Austin’s Butterfly’, which encourages a child to create, take on constructive criticism, or be taught skills for improvement, then to try again.

Austin's Butterfly: Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback - YouTube

-When planning, we first give children the opportunity to explore and review similar pieces of work by famous artists from across the globe, as well as from different time periods.  We use P4C techniques to encourage children to express how they feel about a piece of work and to give reasons as to why they have come to that conclusion.  In doing so, they are taught that it is ok to not like something, even if it has been created by a ‘professional’.  Art appreciation is personal taste and as long as we are respectful, we are allowed to say if something is not of our choosing.  This encourages speaking and listening, enhances vocabulary, and broadens their experiences of art.

-At the beginning of their journey, children are given the opportunity to create using their previously learned skills, so as teachers, we can tailor subsequent lessons to help plug gaps in their learning.  Children are then taught skills to encourage progression and improve their work.  As a final piece, children will be given an opportunity to apply the skills they have learned.  Feedback and self-evaluation are carried out through conversation to ensure the journey is focused on creativity rather than the ability to record their thoughts through a written conclusion.  Above all, however, the child’s final piece of work is celebrated as being a success.

-As with all areas of the curriculum, we plan to use strategies that seek to lessen cognitive load so children can retrieve previous learning, and elaborate on their knowledge and opinions (for example, a child might create an abstract picture but be able to talk about what it is they have tried to convey), apply their art skills to other areas of the curriculum and vice versa, and demonstrate spaced learning.

-Learning is planned and taught using the National Curriculum and the school’s progression of skills (attached below).  The infants and juniors work closely together to ensure a smooth transition and the continuation of progression between key stages.

Impact:

“I found I could say things with colours and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” – Georgia O’Keefe

What we have seen through the implementation of our Art curriculum:

-All children participate in art, including Hampshire’s recent Climate Unity Project.

-All children are expected to progress and achieve in Art.

-Children can talk about their work and the work of others, showing a progression in vocabulary as well as their art skills.

-Children can apply their art skills in other areas of the curriculum, including science, geography, and other humanities subjects.

-Art journals show progression across the schools, as well as the application of new skills. (See our exemplification materials above).

-Children actively choose to do art in their free time, particularly drawing and colour, demonstrating their skills, as well as a positive mindset when it comes to participating in creative activities.

-Children are enthusiastic about art and show good engagement in art lessons.

-Most children are achieving ARE in Art across the school, including Expressive Arts and Design in the Early Years Framework.

-All children are given a good diet of art, ensuring all disciplines are covered.

-Children show enjoyment in lessons, as well as confidence to experiment and create without the fear of failure – they enjoy the process, not just the end result.