Art Intent Statement

At Brierley Forest Primary School, we are committed to providing all children with opportunities to engage in art. The purpose of Art education is to give pupils the skills, concepts and knowledge necessary for them to express their responses to ideas and experiences in a visual or tactile form. It fires their imagination and is a fundamental means of personal expression. It enables children to express how they feel, what they see and think through the use of colour, line, form, texture, pattern and different materials. It allows children to make thoughtful judgements about life and helps them to shape the environment and also to understand how art has both reflected and shaped the history of our nation, contributing to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation. The implementation of this policy is the responsibility of all teaching staff.  

Our aims for art in the curriculum are: 

• Ensuring all children experience the richness of a broad and balanced range of art activities and show progression within these experiences.  
• For children to foster an understanding and enjoyment of art, to be engaged, inspired and challenged. 
• For children to engage with a variety of art forms, to explore values, attitudes, feelings and meanings. 
• To develop children’s understanding of colour, form, texture and pattern. Provide particular activities that give children the ability and skills to realise their ideas in drawing, painting, sculpture and other craft techniques. 
• To nurture artistic talent and develop children’s skills that arise from successful arts education, including the creative use of imagination and considered risk taking, co-operation, tenacity, flexibility and responsibility as well as leadership and entrepreneurial skills. 
• To know about great artists, craft makers and designers and understand the historical and cultural development of their artwork. 
• To develop skills in observation and analysis and critical responses to their own work and those of others. 

Art in Action!

At BFPNS, every child in year 1 to year 6 have an art scrapbook. At the beginning of every unit, a knowledge organiser is shown to the children, discussed and then stuck in their books. . These provide children with the key vocab and an insight into the artist/s they will look at. Selected work is picked out including the name of the art piece providing children with sticky knowledge from the start.

As shown on our Art/Design overview (please see above), each half term has the same focus across the school. This enables subject leaders to monitor the progress and outcomes of pupils. There is a clear progression shown across school when wandering our corridors and looking at the displays, speaking to pupils and looking in their books. 

For each unit, the children focus on an artist and learn some key facts about them and their work. They engage in experimentation and apply these key skills to a final piece of work. As the lessons progress, children become confident in using various tools, mediums and unfamiliar methods to create their own unique artwork. Our children feel empowered as creators of the arts and are provided the freedom to express their individualities in a safe and purposeful manner. 

Y4 experimenting with brush strokes, tones, hues and shades in the style of David Hockney. 

Y2 experimenting outdoors to find rubbings of different textures/ patterns. 

Creativity doesn't just stop within our classrooms, our community of parents/ carers are very onboard with our creative homework pieces. The children LOVE spending time with their adults at home making something linked to their wider curriculum e.g. History/ Geography/ English. Have a look at the examples below. 

Y3 Stone Age to the Iron Age - History Creative Homework

Frog Belly Rat Bone creations based on their English text

Y2 - Great Fire of London homework