Art
We intend for our students to develop their knowledge and skills to express and communicate personal and meaningful art.
Inquiry into what they see and touch ensures that students learn the unique and powerful role that visual and tactile language has in shaping our perceptions, ideas and our knowledge. By exploring and experimenting with tools and materials, students accumulate knowledge of the potential for making and the language of art. Through challenge and questioning, we develop students’ critical thinking and knowledge of the contextual meanings of art and its making. Furthermore, we prepare students to help them to be able to judge the roles and values of their work and the work of artists. The process of design ensures our students know how to plan, conceive and communicate design proposals for identified needs. Development of students’ thinking about their own learning nurtures the confidence needed to take responsibility for their own learning and the resilience needed to overcome practical and intellectual problem-solving challenges.
The Art curriculum of years 7 to 11 is divided into projects, each with a theme for inquiry, specified art practices, framework of tools, materials, techniques and a focus for developing knowledge of visual and tactile language. As each project covers all key areas of assessment, this design ensures all students in each year are taught knowledge and skills covering the breadth of 2D and 3D art practices and the language of dot and line, tone, light and colour, and form and space. In addition, projects across each year give students access to the work of artists across time, place, culture and gender, providing breadth to their understanding of our cultural heritage. In support, art clubs, visiting artists and gallery visits enrich and extend pupil learning.
The Sixth Form offers students the opportunity to broaden and then specialise within art practices and define personal areas of artistic inquiry. A level Fine Art students explore a broad range of art practices, undertake experimentation and explore techniques of art to provide nuanced understanding of tools, materials and the language of art. Life drawing cements their knowledge. Recording observations and critical analysis inform the development and realisation of their own ambitious personal art outcomes. A level Photography students explore the camera as a tool to document, express and communicate ideas. The genius of photography is examined critically, enabling students to develop personal ideas in a knowledgeable context. Level 3 Cambridge Technicals Art enables our students to learn not just making and art appreciation skills but, through the experience of commercial project briefs, the development of communication and entrepreneurial skills in readiness for the world of work. Our students leave us valuing art experiences, appreciative of the work of others and are prepared and equipped for both the demands and challenges of Higher Education and their economic futures.
Identified key art knowledge and skills
AO1: develop ideas –
- Know how sources inspire the development of ideas (including artists’ work, environments, situations and issues;
- Know the ways in which meaning is communicated through visual and tactile language;
- Know purposes and uses of art in a variety of contexts;
- Apply skills of developing ideas through selection of sources and critical analysis and evaluation.
AO2: refine ideas
- Know the characteristics of tools and materials and processes – their potential for making by exploring and taking creative risks;
- Apply art practices safely to their work;
- Apply skills in the use of tools, materials and processes safely to make art.
AO3: record ideas
- Apply skills and knowledge to record ideas visually and verbally;
- Know and use specialist art vocabulary.
AO4: realise ideas
- Apply skills and knowledge to make personal meaningful outcomes.
