Art and Design
Curriculum Overview
Intent: why do we teach what we teach?
The Art and Design curriculum ambition is to develop an ability in our young people to realise their own creative thoughts and ideas. We want to foster a deep cultural knowledge and understanding of a wide range of art, craft and design experiences. We continually review and refine our curriculum to ensure that it will equip our young people with the knowledge and skills needed to confidently experiment, explore and create their own works of art and design, as well as developing assured levels of critical and reflective thinking.
Our curriculum aims to challenge students to engage with themes that have occupied and continue to occupy artists and designers alike, while also having the flexibility to enable young people to discover themselves, hone their skills, and find their voice. We aim to showcase a culturally diverse curriculum so that students can see themselves mirrored in the creative world and strive to represent a multitude of identities. We understand the importance of developing students’ cultural capital and expose our students to a wide range of art experiences and creative professional settings first hand.
Running alongside our curriculum is our extra curriculum offer which includes, but is not limited to, KS3 Club, Seasonal Crafts, Stagecraft, Life Drawing and Portfolio Building. There are dedicated intervention sessions that run throughout the academic year, where students are encouraged to spend time outside of lessons working on personal projects with staff within the department, and there is a strong culture of students using our studio spaces in their own time with the support of their teachers to build up their body of work.
We know how important it is to equip students with an awareness of what a creative career or vocation could look like, as well as help them navigate a range of professional environments. Linking exhibitions into schemes of work we endeavour to take students on trips to the Tate Modern and other national galleries that London has to offer. We have an annual visit from a professional artist who works with students in KS4 and 5 to teach and hone oil painting skills. KS5 students have the opportunity to visit an open access printmaking studio, enabling them to produce a range of professional level screenprints to support their personal work, and many of our students carry out work experience in local design studios and architectural firms.
Implementation: how do we teach what we teach?
When students begin to study art and design at The Elmgreen School we review their ability to read and understand art and design ideas, assess their ability to create basic observation drawings and how they explore and generate creative ideas.
In Year 7 students start the year exploring the Formal Elements of Art. This underpins the Intensive Drawing Project that follows with a focus on portraiture, and a broader look at materials, mark making and photography in the project based on Natural Forms. Students develop confidence in observational and analytical skills, which is promoted in exploring the artists Karl Blossfeldt, Angie Lewin and Althea McNish. This gives students the foundation skills needed to be successful art and design learners.
In Year 8 students then go onto study the Principles of Design, composition and social identity. They explore artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Shepard Fairey, Seydou Keita and Grayson Perry and work with mixed media, photography and printmaking. Here we challenge students to think critically about how artists communicate and critique current issues, offering the tools and techniques to allow them to apply this to their own thinking.
In Year 9 students work through four different art specialisms - Drawing, Painting, Printmaking and Sculpture. Within each of these specialisms, there are bigger questions that are explored. How have artists bestowed value onto objects in still life works? How has printmaking helped develop wider awareness of key social or political issues? Students once again look at a range of artists within these projects, including Claes Oldenberg, Elizabeth Catlett, Lucien Freud, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Foster Huntington, to help inspire their own outcomes while allowing the opportunity for students to explore these materials and techniques in greater depth. This enables the development of technical skills to the standard required for Key Stage 4.
At Key Stage 4 students start with a structured project titled ‘Urban Architecture’ that focuses on building up their bank of skills. Students are introduced to a wide range of materials, techniques and analytical skills that will underpin their learning for the entirety of the GCSE course. This initial project is followed by the theme based project of Identity, where students explore a range of artists in greater depth and produce outcomes in response to artists work, leading to a final piece of their own based on their sketchbook work. These initial projects are worth 60% of students' final grade.
In the January of Year 11 students then work on an ESA project, where they choose their own topic from an exam paper and produce their own independent project, culminating in them producing a final outcome over a ten hour period in assessed conditions. This is where student ideas really flourish and are supported by all the practical work and skills they have developed throughout the course. This ESA project is worth 40% of students' marks.
We encourage students to develop ideas that are personal to them, allowing them to find their own creative voice - often working 1:1 with them to tailor their projects to their interests. Throughout the course they develop their critical understanding, technical ability and confidence in generating conceptual ideas.
At Key Stage 5 students will explore a variety of techniques and media to ensure they gain the necessary knowledge and skills for Advanced Level study which includes analysing artist work, drawing and painting. Students will also learn about photography, lighting and a range of digital editing skills to complement this, alongside exploring a range of different printmaking techniques. After the first foundation term students choose their own personal investigation project that complements their skills, interests and future aspirations, guided by consistent 1:1 individual feedback.
Impact: how do we know what pupils have learnt and how well they have learnt it?
At Key Stage 3 the majority of students show steady sustained improvement from Year 7 to Year 9 towards their targets and many achieving above. Students make the progress we would expect as it is necessary for their art and design education to start from the beginning due to their varying previous experiences. We access this through analysing their increasing knowledge of our curriculum, discovering have they got a greater metacognition and deeper conceptual understanding of the more challenging concepts and ideas relating to art and design. We also evaluate their researching and analysing and how they are able to put ideas into concepts and making. Finally, we evaluate their independent skills of drawing, making, exploring and experimenting at each stage and how they transfer these skills to their own artistic practice. Student work will show great improvement due to the consistent dialogue of teacher feedback and student reflection and refinement.
At Key Stage 4 the Art and Design 4 – 9 pass rates have been stable and are at or above National averages for the last number of years. Student feedback from the Art course is very positive. They feel the course we provide at GCSE prepares them well for furthering their studies in this area. Although the curriculum is designed to ensure that all areas of assessment objectives are covered, there is scope for students to create work that is personal to student interests to work so they can discover themselves and find their voice.
At Key Stage 5, ALPs scores of 2 and 3 in past years indicate that our cohorts achieve in the top 75th to 99th percentile when compared to nationwide data. It means that our students are making outstanding progress from their GCSE starting points in Year 11. After the first foundation term students choose their own personal investigation project that complements their skills, interests and future aspirations. A recent shift to digital portfolio work has allowed many of our students to start to explore a wider range of media in their own practice, including digital rendering, animation, video work and multi media installation. Students develop great independence in exploring the skill sets that are relevant to their work and ideas, and as a department we believe that this helps students prepare for the changing dynamics and ways of working in the modern workplace.
The department prides itself on the varied creative paths that our students take following their A Levels. Many undertake Foundation courses or go onto study Art and Design, Product Design, Computer Aided Design, Interior Design, Games Art, Architecture, Fashion Photography and Fashion Journalism. Past students have gone onto some of the top creative Universities in the country such as Camberwell College of Art and Design, Central St Martins, London College of Fashion, London College of Communication, Ravensbourne, Brighton and Bournemouth. We actively encourage students to broaden their knowledge skills outside the course by attending exhibitions, open days and Insight Weeks at UAL. We know that this personalised approach ensures that students are fully prepared for further education and that their portfolios reflect their interest in their chosen field.
