Art & Design
Intent
At Egerton Primary School, our Art and Design curriculum is designed to engage, inspire, and challenge all pupils, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to experiment, invent, and create their own works of art, craft, and design. We aim to:
- Develop proficiency in drawing, painting, sculpture, and other craft techniques, ensuring pupils build technical confidence across a range of media.
- Encourage personal expression and creativity, enabling pupils to respond emotionally and aesthetically to ideas and experiences.
- Foster an appreciation for the work of great artists, designers, and architects from diverse periods, cultures, and contexts.
- Provide opportunities to apply art and design skills across other areas of the curriculum through thematic and cross-curricular projects.
- Ensure all learning is ambitious, inclusive, and accessible, with differentiation and scaffolding to support pupils with SEND.
Implementation
The Art and Design curriculum is carefully sequenced and structured to ensure progression in knowledge, skills, and creativity from Early Years through Key Stage 2. Key elements include:
- Sequenced Learning:
- Pupils build foundational skills in mark-making, line, shape, and colour in early years, which are developed into more complex skills such as tone, perspective, composition, and mixed-media techniques in later years.
- Knowledge of artists and cultural contexts progresses from local and historical examples to international and contemporary practitioners.
- Units encourage guided practice leading to independent creative outcomes, culminating in Year 6 units such as L.S. Lowry’s urban landscapes, Paul Cézanne’s still life, and sculpture projects inspired by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and Alberto Giacometti.
- Assessment and Evaluation:
- Each class and each unit has end point assessments, allowing pupils to demonstrate mastery of skills and knowledge.
- Pupils are encouraged to reflect on their work and the work of others using unit-specific vocabulary and the “What Makes a Successful” poster, which provides clear success criteria for self and peer evaluation.
- Formative assessment (sketchbook reviews, observations, discussions) and summative assessment (portfolio outcomes, endpoint criteria) are used to monitor progress and inform next steps.
- Varied Experiences:
- Pupils explore a wide range of media, including wet and dry materials, digital art, and 3D construction.
- Creative enrichment opportunities such as workshops, gallery visits, and project collaborations allow pupils to apply and extend their learning in authentic contexts.
- SEND and Inclusion:
- Lessons are scaffolded to support pupils with additional needs, with visual prompts, step-by-step instructions, adapted materials, and targeted support.
- Differentiation ensures that all pupils can engage meaningfully, make progress, and achieve success in Art and Design.
- Key Vocabulary
Each unit explicitly teaches subject-specific vocabulary (e.g., perspective, composition, vanishing point, tone, 3D sculpture) to support knowledge retention, skill application, and articulate evaluation.
Impact
By the end of each key stage, pupils at Egerton Primary will:
- Demonstrate technical proficiency in a wide range of media and techniques, producing original, creative work.
- Develop a cumulative understanding of artists, movements, and cultural contexts.
- Apply art and design skills across cross-curricular projects.
- Reflect critically on their own and others’ work, using key vocabulary to evaluate and refine outcomes.
- Meet objectives in each unit, as evidenced by endpoint assessments
- Be prepared for secondary education with confidence in practical skills, visual literacy, creativity, and cultural awareness.
Our sequenced, inclusive, and carefully assessed curriculum ensures that all pupils make progress, achieve mastery, and enjoy a rich, engaging experience in Art and Design.