Art and Design
At The Willow we want our children to love art, craft and design! We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and to grow up wanting to be illustrators, graphic designers, fashion designers, curators, architects or printmakers. Our Art curriculum is designed to engage, inspire and challenge pupils, whilst equipping them with the knowledge and skills to be able to experiment, invent and create their own works of art. As pupils progress, they should gain a deeper understanding of how Art and Design reflects and shapes our history, and how it contributes to the culture, creativity and wealth of our world. We want to equip our children with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the Art and Design National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. We want our children to use the local area as inspiration, to learn from other cultures and to respect diversity. We have carefully selected a wide range of unique and diverse artists, craft makers and designers for children to study. Children study Art and Design through our History and Geography curriculum as well as through stand alone bespoke Art and Design units.
We Ensure that Children:
- Are taught art using a progressive, exciting approach.
- Become visually literate.
- Are encouraged to develop an appreciation for art in different forms, becoming critical thinkers when forming an opinion on what they see.
- Are provided with a creative skills based curriculum that guides and challenges all pupils.
- Develop their skills by being taught a range of artistic styles and concepts.
- Are provided with the opportunity to learn about the world in which we live.
- Art is a valued area of our cross curricular approach where children are encouraged to apply their art skills to a variety of different contexts.
- Are taught to analyse and develop a critical understanding of Art and Design using the language of art to appreciate the visual world around them.