Art & Design
Exodus 35:31
Equipping our children to think, work and communicate as artists and designers.
Organisation of Art & Design
The Art curriculum at Eltham Church of England is organised into blocks with each block covering a particular set of artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, 3D and collage. Vertical progression in each discipline has been deliberately woven into the fabric of the curriculum so that pupils can revisit key disciplines throughout their Primary journey at increasing degrees of challenge and complexity. The Art and Design curriculum is unapologetically ambitious and provides all children the opportunity to achieve and exceed the attainment targets set out in the National Curriculum 2014.
Sequencing learning
In addition to the core knowledge required to be successful within each discipline, the curriculum outlines key aspects of artistic development which we refer to as ‘Working Artistically’. Each module focuses on developing different aspects of these competencies.
Vocabulary modules, annotated exemplifications and instructional videos complement the content in each block and provide clear instruction about art techniques and methods.
Central to the learning modules are activities designed to develop pupils’ oracy and vocabulary skills to enable them to use artistic language meaningfully when talking about their work and the work of others.
Click here to see Core Content Years 1-6
At Eltham, we now interleave subjects within our foundation subjects curricular. Their distribution within the timetable is made consciously allowing for the retrieval and transfer of knowledge within and across different disciplines. For example, learning about the Stone Age is enhanced through the contextual study of prehistoric art. Interleaving and spacing out subjects over time supports children to retrieve prior knowledge and apply that in different contexts. This strengthens neural pathways and allows more information to be remembered.
Example sequence showing spaced practise and interleaving in Year 5
Art & Design Lessons
Art and Design is taught in a block of 3 lessons. During a unit of study, children are supported to decode, define, apply, link and analyse unfamiliar words to help develop their language acquisition. They are encouraged to use this newly acquired language to describe their artwork and that of others.
Example drawing block for Year 1
Example of vocabulary teaching in Year 1
“The children’s grasp on the new language they are learning is simply phenomenal!”
School Governor, March 2024
“Art gives us time to explore the work of famous artists and discuss it using new technical words”
Pupil, Year 6
Knowledge notes are present in children’s books at the beginning of a unit. This essential knowledge and vocabulary is communicated and kept in one place to avoid overloading children.
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“When I look back in my Creative Journal, I can remember every lesson.
It makes me smile because I feel proud”
Year 4 pupil
Assessment
Lesson exemplification provides an indication of the expected standard for a particular block. Examples are shown below.
Our curriculum review process also examines how Eltham children are experiencing their Art and Design curriculum. Subject Leader monitoring investigates how clearly artistic concepts are understood, how prior knowledge is being drawn upon, how effectively technical vocabulary is used and remembered, how confidently children reference and discuss famous artists and how well children are producing final pieces of artwork which reflect the culmination of a block of work.
Year 1 exemplification
Year 4 exemplification
