Art & Design
At Ashperton Primary Academy, we value art, craft and design highly as they allow our pupils to be at their most creative. We recognise the vital role that design plays within art, enabling children to think purposefully, solve problems and communicate ideas visually. Through our art curriculum, pupils are encouraged not only to develop technical skills, but also to become imaginative designers who can plan, experiment and refine their own creative outcomes.
We also value the opportunities that art, craft and design provide for developing the core learning characteristics of resilience, resourcefulness, reciprocity and reflectiveness. Children learn to take creative risks, embrace challenges and learn from the process of revising and improving their work. They collaborate, share ideas and reflect thoughtfully on their own and others’ creations, developing confidence and independence as learners.
From the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), children are given rich opportunities to explore materials, tools and techniques, in line with the EYFS framework. These early experiences foster curiosity, creativity and the foundations of design thinking, as children begin to plan, create and talk about their ideas.
As pupils progress through the school, learning is guided by the National Curriculum and supported by the Kapow scheme of work. We use Kapow’s cyclical progression of skills, ensuring that knowledge and techniques are revisited and built upon from Year R through to Year 6. This carefully structured approach enables children to develop increasing confidence and mastery across a range of artistic disciplines.
Children engage in a wide variety of activities, sometimes following Kapow units and at other times applying the same objectives through cross-curricular links to their wider topics. This ensures that learning is relevant, meaningful and engaging, while continuing to build essential skills and knowledge over time.
Our curriculum also ensures that children develop a strong understanding of how art and design reflect and shape history and contribute to culture. Pupils explore the work of a diverse range of artists, craftspeople and designers, gaining inspiration from different periods and traditions while developing their own creative identity.
By the time they leave Ashperton Primary Academy, pupils have developed not only a secure set of artistic and design skills, but also a genuine love of art, craft and design. They leave as confident, thoughtful and creative individuals, equipped with the ability to express themselves and engage with the visual world around them.
Pupils should be taught:
- to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
- to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination
- to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space
- about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.
Key stage 2
Pupils should be taught:
- to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.
- to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas
- to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
- about great artists, architects and designers in history
Link to Art and Design National Curriculum
Art & Design and Technology Overview Skills Progression
