Intent, implementation and impact Statement: 

Art at Bitterley CofE Primary School

At Bitterley, we encourage pupils ‘to be courageous, strong and do everything in love.’

The importance of understanding that each of us is rooted in love is not under-estimated at Bitterley.

‘Love always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.’  Corinthians 13:7 Trusting in love gives us the courage to be ourselves. Courage is from the Latin ‘coeur’ which means ‘To tell the story of who you are with your whole heart’. Our intention is for our pupils to leave Bitterley prepared for ‘Life in all its fullness’ and ready to tell their own stories.

Our Christian vision has driven us to create a bespoke curriculum for our pupils that pursues the acquisition of wisdom, knowledge and skills alongside educating for aspiration, dignity, and respect. It is also our intention to nurture a sense of community, so that all members of our school develop a deep sense of belonging, both locally and within the wider world. We believe that these attributes will support our pupils to live well together and flourish, as they move on to High School and beyond.

Our curriculum offer is therefore divided into three focus areas: ‘Courage, strength and love’:

Courageous – Living wholeheartedly. Using the knowledge and skills in our curriculum to choose our own path free from stereotyping; being curious, aspirational. Speaking out for those who do not have a voice. 

Strength – Having a growth mindset, developing resilience, being able to persevere to achieve our goals to create a confident well-rounded citizen in our diverse world.

Love – Embracing our neighbours, developing a greater awareness of the challenge’s others face in life and how we can make a difference in our school community, local community and further afield.  Through the curriculum we develop pupils understanding of challenges locally and globally. We teach pupils to listen with respect.

At Bitterley CofE Primary School, we believe that a carefully sequenced curriculum can empower our pupils and reduce social inequality, whilst providing the knowledge they need for the next stage of their education and beyond. We view our curriculum as a spiral: the mapped-out journey of concept building leading to a change in long term memory and an increase in knowledge. Through progressive concepts throughout the curriculum, the children will develop a deep and rich understanding, meaning that the knowledge and skills that are acquired are more likely to be remembered. Our curriculum sets out WHAT will be learned and WHEN it will be learned. We understand that cultural capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. Through our curriculum we provide different experiences and opportunities to support the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child gains over time

Intent

At Bitterley CE Primary we aim to inspire all children to reach their full academic potential. We aim to provide a wide range of experiences, look at artists from around the world and using a range of different media. We intend to forge links between art and the rest of the curriculum the children will be studying to help make connections between Art and the world around them. All pupils will experience art created by artists from different cultures and backgrounds, artists of different gender, and art and artists representing the diversity of the world we live in.

Our curriculum map has been created based on the resources and lesson ideas from Access Art. It has been designed to ensure full coverage of the National Curriculum, to ensure learning is sequential throughout EYFS - Year 6 and to ensure the art skills learnt are progressive and build upon prior knowledge throughout each year group. Learning is built through a weaving, layering and revisiting of experiences.

Children have opportunity to develop their skills within the following art forms, across different scales, independently and collaboratively:

• Sketchbook work
• Drawing
• Painting and collage
• Printing making and collage 
• 3D sculptures
• Digital media and animation

Pupils also have opportunities to explore artwork created by famous artisits, craftspeople, architects and designers from all cultures and times. This helps to generate discussions and questioning to inform their own ideas and preferences.

Implementation:

At Bitterley CE Primary we will provide a rich and interactive program of study following the Statutory Framework For The Early Years Foundation Stage, March 2021, and the 2014 National Curriculum objectives.

Teachers follow the AccessArt pathway plans tailored to the needs of classes and groups and constantly assess and adapt their teaching and activities to ensure all pupils make progress.   Pathways aim to connect Pedagogy-based resources and activity-based together with external links to websites which explore chosen artists/themes, to form a flexible structure which teachers can navigate easily. Pathways re-teach skills throughout the children’s time in school. Skills are revisited and honed in a spiral curriculum, which progresses in terms of depth and challenge, to build on the children’s previous learning. We utilise a sketchbook approach, so that children feel safe to experiment and take risks, without the fear of doing something “wrong”. We ensure that each child develops their skills and techniques in a way appropriate to them, through clear differentiation and support, active and purposeful experiences, and using a variety of art materials and teaching strategies. The emphasis is on journeyful teaching and learning which empowers teachers and pupils to become confident creative decision makers.

We advocate gentle, on going assessment based upon lots of conversation, to discover intention and understanding, as well as looking at outcomes of the journey and end result. After each lesson teachers assess children's knowledge and understanding through a range of questions that enable children to reflect and evaluate on their learning. Each pathway contains “I Can...” statements, which is used to check understanding. This gives children opportunities to evaluate and improve their work through teacher guidance. We Celebrating effort, progress and achievement in art through displays, exhibitions and enrichment activities, such as trips out.

Impact:

By the end of their time with us, we want pupils to have learned, improved and embedded a range of artistic skills. They should have an awareness of a broad range of artists and craftspeople, and be able to consider and discuss the artworks they come across. We want our pupils to be confident to explore, experiment and take risks, placing value on the process and journey that they take, not just on the finished product. Most importantly, we want children to have found and enjoyed a creative outlet – a means of self-expression and enjoyment. Openly promoting art and design as a possible further study or career choice.