Tranmere Park Primary School

Intent – What is the purpose of our arts curriculum?

At Tranmere Park Primary, we believe that the Arts play an essential role in the education of our pupils; it shapes and reflects history and contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of the world around us. Importantly, our focus is to provide the children with a platform to express their individual creativity whilst appraising and critiquing their work and the work of others. We believe that all pupils should have access to a curriculum where techniques, skills and knowledge are developed sequentially.

We intend to:

develop our pupils’ critical abilities whilst ensuring our children understand their own and others’ cultural heritages through the study of a diverse range of artists.
Know and understand the key concepts of ‘expression and communication’ and ‘culture and tradition.’
Equip pupils with a clear knowledge of what being an artist requires: artists appraise the work of others; evaluate their own work; study the techniques of famous artists and use these to recreate and innovate and they use art to convey feelings, send messages and/or inform about time periods.

In summary, art develops an understanding of the seven elements of art (line, shape, colour, form, value, texture and space) by providing an enriched, broad and balanced curriculum which will enable all our children to reach their full potential.

Our Children will:

Our Teachers will:

Learn to be creative – there is no right or wrong answer when creating art.
Be resilient to mistakes and persevere when faced with a challenge.
Possess highly positive attitudes towards the subject and consider continuing with the subject into KS3.
Be enthusiastic and motivated to ‘have a go’, building on their existing knowledge, skills and understanding.
Ask inquisitive questions, pose ideas and thoughts about different art pieces/artists.
Achieve the expected standards in art and for some, surpass the national expectations.
Learn about how art has developed from different movements.
Learn the names of famous artists from the past and the present day, understanding their techniques and the stories behind their art.

Provide a progressive and challenging art curriculum which is sequenced to ensure that new and personalised knowledge is taught in each session.
Provide opportunities for art objectives to be taught in a cross-curricular manner, where appropriate.
Identify gaps in skill development and knowledge and swiftly overcome these with precise teaching.
Provide the children with a rich curriculum of carefully crafted lessons that ensures time for practical practise and consolidation.
Provide opportunities for children to: take part in creative art days, have one to one time with professional artists and visit galleries, exhibitions and concerts. These experiences will widen their knowledge, exposure to and understanding of the arts.

Implementation – How do we do it?

The Learning Journey

The powerful knowledge required to be an expected artist are developed throughout each art topic and are mapped across the year groups in a progressive manner. Our emphasis on knowledge ensures that our children understand the context of artwork, as well as grasping the inspiration. Our knowledge progressions afford the children with opportunities to create art using a range of media. They are explicitly taught to draw, paint, sculpt, design and evaluate their ideas, challenging these through individual and collaborative work.
Art skills and knowledge are taught through cross-curricular opportunities. By linking art, wherever possible, to our wider curriculum, children are encouraged and comfortable to share and express their ideas. They do so with confidence to experiment, creating resilience in the pursuit of their end goal. Promoting art in this way brings topics to life and, as a result, our children’s love of art transcends beyond designated art lessons. Co-ordinated, whole-school projects (Arts Week, Challenge Days, performances by visiting artists, school productions, workshops, visits to exhibitions and galleries and our annual participation in the ‘Aireborough Learning Partnership Arts Exhibition’) ensure that art is given high status within our curriculum. Our participation in the Aireborough Learning Partnership Arts Exhibition involves our children producing art to comply to a specific brief while ensuring that they are afforded an opportunity to see their work and their creativity showcased and exhibited. Furthermore, artists are invited to lead workshops and parents and members of the local community are encouraged to enjoy the exhibition.
Tranmere Park’s high-quality art curriculum is supported through the availability of a wide range of quality resources, which are used to support the children’s confidence in the use of different media. We plan opportunities for learning to take place outside of the classroom, as well as the involvement of adults with specialist skills from within the local and wider community.

Assessment

Short-term assessments are made within the art curriculum on a lesson-by lesson basis. This involves evaluating pupils’ artistic skills, creativity, knowledge, and progress. Teachers assess areas such as drawing, painting, use of materials, creativity, and ability to evaluate their work. Methods include observation, questioning, sketchbooks, finished artwork, and self- or peer-assessment.

Medium-term assessments are completed at the end of a term or unit of work. Class teachers keep a record to show progress of skills and observations of which pupils excelled in the objectives - WOWs, and those who struggled or needed more support OWs.

Long-term assessments assess our children against the national expectations. These are recorded at the end of each academic year on our school assessment platform. This data is passed onto the next teacher to inform their future planning in the subject. As part of subject monitoring, any celebrations of art success are noted and any pattern, concerns in pupils learning and development will be monitored and fed back to teachers, parents and SLT.

Monitoring

There is an ongoing cycle of subject monitoring at Tranmere Park Primary. The Subject Leader will be allocated a block of time during the academic year to monitor work against an agreed criteria from SLT, to organise a theme week for the whole school to address an objective which has been highlighted in the subject evaluation form and finally organise a challenge day for children who show a particular aptitude or interest in Art. Results of monitoring will inform the Subject Leader’s future plan. The Subject Leader manages the long-term plan for the Arts alongside the curriculum manager. In addition, the Subject Leader reports to the assessment manager at the end of the academic year referring to each class’s art end of year outcomes.

Impact – What knowledge and skills are obtained?

At Tranmere Park, every pupil will:

Make progress and achieve national expectations, irrespective of background and entry points.
Encourage our children to think creatively whilst having the confidence to experiment, enhance and develop their own ideas.
Be aware of the works of great artists and how people in the past expressed themselves artistically.
Create works in the styles of others, and, ultimately, in the styles of themselves, as an artist.
Be equipped, because of the teaching of greater proficiency in artistic skills and the promotion of individuality, to approach the wider world with a stronger sense of self.
Have mastered the skills required to review, modify and develop their initial ideas to achieve high-quality outcomes.
Have been afforded the opportunity to celebrate their achievements in art around the school but also via exhibitions within the community.

Further to the above, our Curriculum, at Tranmere Park, is designed to ensure that each child is a confident and successful learner who demonstrates our core values:

The Team Tranmere Way
Be Yourself		Be Your Best		Be Team Tranmere
Our children will learn to like who they are; they respect themselves and live their lives in their own way, regardless of the opinions of others.		Our children ‘give it everything they have got’ to achieve their full potential across the curriculum.		Our children are a part of a community and have respect for the resources and people in it and that surround it.
Our Learning Values and Behaviours
Self-Manager	Effective Participator	Independent Enquirer	Team Worker	Resourceful Thinker	Reflective Learner
Our children set their own goals and manage their own time, motivation and concentration.	Our children participate in lessons and persuade and encourage others to do so.	Our children set goals for their research with clear success criteria.	Our children understand that we are stronger together and implement this.	Our children are problem-solvers who can adapt to new or difficult situations.	Our children critically analyse their work ensuring future improvements.