Intent

At Slinfold CE Primary school our goal is to foster individuality and creativity in all of our children. We aim to deliver a creative Art and Design curriculum accessible to all, ensuring that every child sees themselves as an artist and achieves to the best of their ability. Our Art and Design curriculum provides the children with a range of opportunities to develop and extend skills and enables them to express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas.

We aim to provide a high-quality Art and Design education that engages, inspires and challenges our children, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to experiment, create and invent their own individual works of art. We believe that Art and Design stimulates imagination and ingenuity. Our children are provided with opportunities to respond to their understanding of the world around them through visual, tactile and sensory experiences. Our children’s wellbeing is nurtured through Art and Design enabling them to communicate their thoughts, feelings and experiences through the use of colour, texture, form, pattern and various materials and processes.

At Slinfold CE Primary school we recognise the vital role Art and Design plays in allowing curiosity, creativity and self-expression to develop alongside resilience, confidence and critical thinking skills. The skills children acquire in Art and Design are a means of supporting their learning in a range of ways, and can be transferred to other areas of the curriculum. Through the study of various artists children are encouraged to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of Art and Design, in turn this supports them with developing and evaluating their own art work.

SEND

At Slinfold C of E Primary School we recognise that art and design is essential for developing creative expression and self-esteem in our children.

The range of pedagogical approaches that art and design provides enables the children to overcome barriers they may experience in other curriculum areas and help to cultivate self-confidence.

Children who struggle with poor fine motor skills are given a broad resource base to use in order to help them to develop these skills. They are also encouraged to work on a larger scale initially, decreasing in scale as they acquire greater control. The children have access to different media to use when drawing. Similarly they are offered a variety of painting application media ranging from using their fingers to sponges as well as different sized brushes.

Scissors can be a source of frustration for children and therefore a variety of sizes and types are available for the children to use to maximise success when cutting.

To make lesson content as accessible as possible information is both visual and verbal. Time is given for discussion and sharing of ideas, plus key vocabulary is clearly displayed and referred to repeatedly throughout the lesson.

When equipment is introduced, its name is given and its purpose explained and demonstrated. The equipment used is fully accessible to all the children and adapted for individuals as necessary to ensure all can fully participate.

Teachers’ model processes step by step to ensure a greater level of understanding, this is particularly effective if the children complete the tasks practically alongside the teacher. Discussion and reflection by both the children and teacher are an important element of the learning as is the sharing of work.

Children with sensory needs have these taken into consideration and adaptations are made to the lesson if necessary for specific individuals. Adult support is made available for those children who need it as they work as part of a group or individually.