Art & Design

"Creativity takes courage"

Henri Matisse

To those who rarely create art, it may seem as though the process of creation is easy and comes without any challenges.

At Mossgate, we value the courage needed to take risks and learn from experimentation.

At Mossgate Primary School Art & Design is an enjoyable learning experience where we enable children to love Art, either through looking at the work of artists or through engaging in creating works of art for themselves. Whilst equipping children with skills & techniques we believe strongly that children should learn to value the process of being creative, with exploration & experimentation a key feature of their work. Therefore a single final product at the end is not the only outcome but a series of sketches, designs, models, photographs along the journey are equally if not more important.

Drawing & Painting lie at the heart of our Art teaching. Children throughout the school have a personal sketchbook where they can respond to different stimuli, within Art lessons inside & outdoors, including taking these on trips to record the visual experiences they have beyond the school.

Sketchbooks provide a place to record observations, to communicate the child’s growing aesthetic awareness, to develop art processes & techniques and to record evaluations of their own work and that of others including artists, designers & craftspeople studied.

 The document "Using Sketchbooks at Mossgate" goes into more detail about our use of sketchbooks and includes examples of good practice in use of sketchbooks from across the school . This document can be found at the bottom of this page.

We ensure children encounter a range of artists & craftspeople during their time at Mossgate and one way we do this is to have a portrait focus each year, where the children study an artist & their work more closely. They then use this as inspiration for their own self-portraits and try to work in the style of the artist studied. We invite parents to view these at our Mossgate Gallery evening every September.

We aim to bring local artists in on a regular basis to inspire the children & staff, & to share their expertise & enthusiasm. Most recently we have worked with Helen Yates (Burning Light Arts) on Clay Projects in Year 3 & Year 4.

We are also able to offer a nationally accredited award: Arts Award, having one trained member of staff who can deliver this to groups of children, often through after school clubs. Here is the latest group of children to achieve Arts Award:Discover.

In addition, we have entered into a partnership with a local high school; the Bay Leadership Academy, where Year 10 Art students delivered a wonderful workshop to our Reception children, as part of their journey to Bronze level Arts Award.

Art & Design Aims

At Mossgate Primary School our overarching aims are that all children:

• produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
• become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
• evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
• know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

In order for children to achieve these aims in a deep and meaningful way, we have planned an Art Curriculum that focuses on Key Learning for each of the elements of Drawing, Painting, 3D using Clay, Printing & Collage and for the processes of Art including being creative, evaluating & analysing and looking at the work of great artists, designers & craftspeople.

In each year group there are at least three planned units that link closely to Year Group Themes, thus enriching and enhancing the wider curriculum. Wherever possible, the outdoor school environment or the local area is used for inspiration. Our Art Overview & Key Learning & Vocabulary document can be found at the bottom of this page.

 In order to ensure standards in Art & Design are high, the subject leader regularly reviews the evidence of learning through looking at sketchbooks, discussions with teachers in conjunction with their planning and of course talking to children too. Following such monitoring activities, next steps are identified for individual teachers and staff as a whole, with feedback shared and training planned & delivered usually through in-house training by the subject leader.

During Pupil Voice sessions, children across KS1 & KS2 shared their sketchbooks with Mrs Booth; sharing some of their learning in the past & more recently. The videos that follow provide short clips of some of the discussions they had. 

"I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for."

Georgia O'Keeffe

Art is a way of communicating and expressing ourselves, sometimes better than words themselves.

At Mossgate, we understand the value of Art in supporting all learners to express themselves and especially those that find verbal communication more challenging.

Mrs B Booth - The Arts Subject Leader 

Updated September 2024

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