Art and Design for Life at Holgate Academy
Intent
At Orrell Holgate, we view Art and Design as a significant component of the children’s right to a comprehensive and balanced curriculum. Children can express their own interests, thoughts, and ideas via Art and Design, which gives them the chance to grow and enhance their talents. Our curriculum takes into account the theoretical knowledge needed to be successful as well as the practical knowledge needed to carry out individual art work.
Our goal is to provide every child the knowledge and abilities they need to experiment, invent, and produce original pieces of art, craft, and design. The art curriculum exposes children to the creative processes of well-known artists as well as the historical and contemporary influences of many eras. Throughout school, we strive to give children a wide range of opportunities to develop their skills and practical knowledge in collage, 3D printing, textiles, drawing, painting and sculpting.
At Holgate, we inspire children to grow to appreciate a love of learning and engage in reflective practice. Essentially, we are teaching our children how to learn in order for them to develop and even master a skill or concept. These abilities are crucial to their education and personal growth and are applicable across all academic fields.
Implementation
In Art and Design, we teach an inclusive and expansive curriculum that meets the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum through quality first teaching. The teaching and implementation of Art and Design Curriculum at Orrell Holgate Academy is based on the National Curriculum and linked to topics to ensure a well-structured approach to this creative subject.
The children are taught Art regularly in line with the long-term curriculum map. Lessons follow a consistent structure where prior knowledge and understanding is revisited before moving onto new ideas and concepts. Our curriculum is progressive, building on the work from previous years. Key knowledge, which is mapped out on our curriculum overviews, is carefully taught and embedded as this gives children the foundations to work independently and freely. Given the nature of the subject, plenty of time is given to children to practise practical skills; this allows them to be more successful.
The work of famous, local, national and international artists are explored to enhance children’s learning. We consistently assess children to plug gaps and ensure children are keeping up with what they are learning.
Impact
At Holgate, we want children to have acquired, enhanced, and ingrained a variety of artistic skills by the end of their time with us. We want children to be ready for their next steps in their lives. They should be familiar with a variety of artists and artisans and be able to analyse and debate the works of art they come across. We encourage our children to have the courage to experiment, explore, and take chances, giving equal weight to the process and journey they go through as well as the final output. Most importantly, we want children at Holgate to have discovered and loved a creative outlet—a way to express themselves and be unique.