Blooming Art Project
In the Spring term a selection of pupils from KS2 were selected to participate within a project run by Eastern Angles. This project, ‘Blooming Art’, looked at the history of Cedric Morris’ Art School in Hadleigh while allowing the children to tour the house and grounds where various artists trained and worked alongside Cedric Morris and his partner Arthur Lett-Haines. Our pupils were then given the opportunity to sketch and paint some of the plants and flowers grown by Cedric Morris within his garden. Later on within the project we met with Lily Hammond from Uwu studios to turn our artwork digital. We utilised a programme called pro-create to create digital representations of the flowers and plants within the grounds of Morris’ art school. Our digital artwork was later projected onto the Denary Tower in Hadleigh to share within our local community.
Intent
At Hadleigh Community Primary School our Art Curriculum stimulates creativity and imagination across all year groups. Our focus is to expose our pupils to a wide range of skills and techniques, removing the emphasis on the final outcome, to allow our pupils to have freedom in their own creativity allowing their individual personalities to flourish. We provide learning experiences where there is freedom and opportunity to enable pupils to explore their creative impulses; to communicate what they see, feel and think through drawing, sculpture, colour, texture and collage. Pupils are provided with many opportunities to learn and revisit new skills and techniques through the inclusive, interwoven approach to the curriculum. We immerse our pupils in work produced by a range of diverse artists, architects and designers to support and develop their understanding of how they perceive the world. Furthermore, pupils are then inspired to communicate their own thoughts and ideas about the world around them and develop their identities through their own creative art in a relaxed environment, where they feel safe to explore ideas.
Implementation
Within the Early Years Foundation Stage pupils are provided with a range of materials and media to explore and manipulate. Pupils participate within a mixture of free choice and directed art activities often linked to their topic-based learning. Adults, through discussion, gently guide pupils to reflect upon their creations and the way in which they have used materials and tools to produce their desired effects.
Within Key Stage One and Key Stage Two pupils follow the Access Art Primary Curriculum. We focus upon three core elements of Art; drawing, sculpture and painting while peppering our units of work with exposure to print, collage and textile. We teach an interwoven curriculum where pupils are constantly building upon their prior knowledge, whilst enhancing their understanding through exposure to new artists, architects and designers and their consequent unique skills and techniques. Our rich curriculum also allows the growth of art language and vocabulary which is embedded and built upon year on year. We encourage pupils to be proud of the artwork they create and their individual creative impulses. At the end of each unit of work pupils are given the opportunity to share their creations with their peers reflecting and evaluating their creations using the language of art.
Impact
Through a high quality and creative approach within our Art curriculum, our pupils have the freedom to apply skills and techniques with individuality to produce art work which expresses their own creativity as well as demonstrating the broad range of skills that they have developed. Throughout each consequent academic year and by the time pupils leave Hadleigh Community Primary School, all pupils are empowered to:
– Express their creative impulses using a range of different mediums while recognising different skills they can employ in order to produce different effects.
– Draw upon their knowledge of great diverse artists, architects and designers to inspire and motivate their creative impulses.
– Recognise that art is a form of expression while their ‘unique creative eye’ is celebrated.
– Reflect upon the work they have completed and how their skills have progressed over time.
– Develop knowledge and varying skills to support them in their transition to secondary school as well as providing them with the confidence to pursue Art further once they leave school if they desire.