Art Curriculum

Illustration of art material

Authenticity and Experimentation

Pupils learn to produce authentic work, relating their own ideas and experiences. They start with responses about themselves, then look at people and the environment around them and eventually respond to themes, topics and issues. Pupils learn to try out ideas, methods and break rules of convention to create something new and find original solutions.

Professional Artist

To achieve these exceptional outcomes, art and design is taught in half-termly blocks by a professional artist, with lessons supported by the class teacher. Pupils are able to know more, remember more and do more with rigorous teaching of the school’s art curriculum and sufficient practice.

Knowledge

Pupils learn practical, theoretical and disciplinary knowledge. To develop practical knowledge, pupils are taught methods and techniques and given time to practice. Pupils learn theory by being taught about journeys and connections through time, materials and processes and meanings and interpretations.  A careful choice of artwork, questions and visits to galleries is used to teach disciplinary knowledge.

Year 3

Week 1

Outcome

  • To draw different marks

 

Vocabulary

  • dark
  • light
  • wavy
  • straight
  • pressure

Week 2

Outcome

  • To create depth using shading with pencils

 

Vocabulary

  • tone
  • shadow
  • highlight
  • contrast
  • space

Week 3

Outcome

  • To draw a range of different textures

 

Vocabulary

  • crosshatching
  • graphite
  • stippling
  • horizontal
  • vertical

Week 4

Outcome

  • To draw with ink

 

Vocabulary

  • undulating
  • perspective
  • foreground
  • background
  • atmosphere

Week 5

Outcome

  • To present the relationship between colours on a colour wheel

 

Vocabulary

  • primary
  • secondary
  • poster paint
  • warm
  • cool

Week 6

Outcome

  • To blend and shade using paint

 

Vocabulary

  • palette
  • hue
  • monochrome
  • gradual
  • blend

Week 7

Outcome

  • To assess knowledge and understanding

 

Vocabulary

  • palette
  • hue
  • monochrome
  • gradual
  • blend

Week 1

Outcome

  • To recall the key features of styles of portraiture

 

Vocabulary

  • expression
  • symmetry
  • profile
  • self- portrait
  • stylisation
  • realism

Week 2

Outcome

  • To draw facial features

 

Vocabulary

  • ellipse
  • sphere
  • vertical
  • horizontal
  • proportion

Week 3

Outcome

  • To draw a face using traditional proportions

 

Vocabulary

  • dimensions
  • protrude
  • recede
  • hairline
  • eye-line

Week 4

Outcome

  • To recall the traditional proportions for a face and study a drawing

 

Vocabulary

  • shading
  • characterisation
  • texture

Week 5

Outcome

  • To paint a portrait with poster paints

 

Vocabulary

  • background
  • blending
  • outline
  • paint consistency

Week 6

Outcome

  • To paint details with fine brushes
  • Trip to National Gallery

 

Vocabulary

  • brushstrokes
  • layering
  • miniature

Week 1

Outcome

  • To identify the features of the style of printing of William Morris

 

Vocabulary

  • floral
  • nature
  • repeat
  • symmetrical
  • woodcut

Week 2

Outcome

  • To draw and shade symmetrical designs

 

Vocabulary

  • shade
  • designs
  • decorative
  • ornate
  • symmetrical motif

Week 3

Outcome

  • To create a design onto a polystyrene plate for printing

 

Vocabulary

  • plate
  • carve
  • reverse
  • transfer
  • repetitive

Week 4

Outcome

  • To print using relief printing

 

Vocabulary

  • relief printing
  • roller
  • aligning
  • pattern
  • engrave

Week 5

Outcome

  • To add further details to the print by amending a relief

 

Vocabulary

  • enhance
  • overlapping
  • mirror image
  • medium
  • amending

Week 6

Outcome

  • To complete a relief print with a second print

 

Vocabulary

  • viscous
  • opaque
  • textile
  • pressure
  • smudging

Core Skills

Year 3 start by learning looking at cave paintings, considering ‘Why did people start to create art?’ They are taught the practical knowledge to make different marks and shapes with shading and texture. They use pencil of different hardness, charcoal and ink.  Pupils are introduced to their sketchbooks used to record their observations and practice. Pupils are taught how to mix colours and the concept of colour theory, painting a colour wheel to show the difference between primary and secondary colours. Using all this knowledge they progress to shading and tonal painting.

Self-portraits

Year 3 consider why people draw and paint themselves, studying examples of traditional, modern and contemporary art, including photography. They learn the proportions of the human face and combine this with knowledge of colour mixing, to further develop practical knowledge of using brushes to paint a self-portrait.

Printing patterns

Year 3 learn about the history of printing both geometric and figurative patterns. William Morris, who lived by the school, inspires pupils to draw natural forms. Pupils design their own patterns, methods to create symmetry and learn the practical knowledge for relief and double printing

colour-wheel

Autumn

Core Skills and Colour Theory

Traditional: Caves of Lascaux, Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci

Modern: Vincent van Gogh, Paul Klee

Contemporary: Roger Ackling, Marcia Kure

lichtenstein

Spring

Self-Portraits

Traditional: Leonardo da Vinci, Johannes Gumpp

Modern: Paul Gauguin, Emile Zola

Contemporary: Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Gillian Wearing

william-morris

Summer

Printing Patterns

Traditional: Islamic Art, Indian Hand Block Printing, Katsushika Hokusai, Rembrant van Rijn

Modern: Franz Marc, William Morris, M.C. Escher

Contemporary: Andy Warhol, Tony Bevan

Year 4

Week 1

Outcome

  • To look at the work and compare the styles of famous artists who painted portraits

 

Vocabulary

  • Realistic
  • Cubist
  • abstract
  • Renaissance
  • portrait

Week 2

Outcome

  • To draw a face using the correct proportions

 

Vocabulary

  • symmetry
  • proportion
  • dimensions
  • structure
  • ellipse

Week 3

Outcome

  • To draw the features of a face with changes to create individuality

 

Vocabulary

  • cheekbones
  • jawline
  • hairline
  • pout
  • vacant

Week 4

Outcome

  • To experiment with ways of shading a face

 

Vocabulary

  • tonal
  • texture
  • highlights
  • monochrome
  • charcoal

Week 5

Outcome

  • To draw a face

 

Vocabulary

  • details
  • features
  • profile
  • semi-profile
  • realism

Week 6

Outcome

  • To paint the face with watercolour paints

 

Vocabulary

  • graded wash
  • brushstrokes
  • consistency
  • skin tone
  • texture

Week 7

Outcome

  • To complete a portrait in watercolours

 

Vocabulary

  • dry brush
  • brushstrokes
  • consistency
  • skin tone
  • texture

Week 1

Outcome

  • To identify features of famous paintings in the history of still life

 

Vocabulary

  • frescoes
  • iconography
  • hyperrealism
  • realism
  • impressionist
  • cubist

Week 2

Outcome

  • To draw and shade objects for still life

 

Vocabulary

  • arrangement
  • foreground
  • inanimate

Week 3

Outcome

  • To draw a still life using charcoal

 

Vocabulary

  • shading
  • chiaroscuro
  • smudging
  • shadows

Week 4

Outcome

  • To create a painted still life

 

Vocabulary

  • blending
  • brush strokes
  • palette

Week 5

Outcome

  • To create a Cubist background

 

Vocabulary

  • texture
  • depth
  • collage

Week 6

Outcome

  • To combine mixed media work

 

Vocabulary

  • assemble
  • dismantle
  • deconstruct

Week 1

Outcome

  • To recall the names of famous potters and some features of their work

 

Vocabulary

  • pottery
  • potter
  • kiln
  • fire
  • sculptor

Week 2

Outcome

  • To draw 3D pots with shading

 

Vocabulary

  • 3D
  • shading
  • dark to light
  • cylinder
  • observe

Week 3

Outcome

  • To make a simple pinch pot

 

Vocabulary

  • pinch pot
  • clay
  • thickness
  • composite
  • identical

Week 4

Outcome

  • To paint and decorate a pinch pot

 

Vocabulary

  • background
  • contrast
  • detail
  • influence

Week 5

Outcome

  • To make a coil pot

 

Vocabulary

  • coil pot
  • base
  • joins
  • malleable
  • harden

Week 6

Outcome

  • To paint and decorate a coil pot

 

Vocabulary

  • decorate

Week 7

Outcome

  • To assess and evaluate how successful the techniques for creating pinch and coil pots

 

Vocabulary

  • assess
  • evaluate

Concept of mood

Building on the knowledge acquired in Year 3, Year 4 revisit portraiture focusing on more realistic shading of the face and the concept of expression and mood. They then study the portraits of the well-known artist, Chris Offilli, noting his cultural influences and how they impact on his work. They use their observations to influence their final painting.

Still Life

Year 4 move on to a very popular aspect in art, the still life. Here, they apply their knowledge of drawing and shading objects but now they have to be aware of the relationship between the objects and draw them accurately in relation to each other. They look at the still life collages of artists Pablo Picasso and George Braque. Using a variety of coloured and textured papers, they create their own collage influenced by these cubist artists.

Shading

Building on the knowledge acquired in Year 3, Year 4 revisit portraiture focusing on more realistic shading of the face. They then study the portraits of the well-known artist, Chris Offilli, noting his cultural influences and how they impact on his work. They use their observations to influence their final painting.

Sculpture

Building on the children’s emerging awareness of texture and three-dimensional form starting with collage, they look at a range of sculptures by famous sculptors. Drawing on the natural world for inspiration, they will design and create a paper sculpture influenced by Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Orpheus’.

Autumn

chris-offilli

Portraiture

Traditional: Roman Egypt Fayum portraits, Classical sculpture, Leonardo da Vinci, Jan van Eyck, Jan Vermeer

Modern: Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, Vincent van Gogh

Contemporary: Julian Opie, Akram Zaatari, Kehinde Wiley

Spring

pablo-picasso

Still Life

Traditional: Rachel Ruysch

Modern: Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris

Contemporary: Ori Gersht, Damien Hirst

Summer

barbara-hepworth

Sculpture – Art Pottery

Traditional: Ancient Greek pottery, Ming dynasty ceramics, Wedgwood Jasperware

Modern: Clarice Cliff, Daisy Makeig-Jones

Contemporary: Elizabeth Fritsch, Grayson Perry

Year 5

Week 1

Outcome

  • To illustrate a child with correct proportions

 

Vocabulary

  • illustration
  • illustrator
  • lithography
  • cartoon
  • digital

Week 2

Outcome

  • To illustrate figures with different styles.

 

Vocabulary

  • comedic effect
  • exaggerated
  • angular
  • manga
  • realistic

Week 3

Outcome

  • To sketch different breeds of dog

 

Vocabulary

  • concave
  • convex
  • coat
  • muzzle
  • hind legs

Week 4

Outcome

  • To draw figures in different positions

 

Vocabulary

  • creases
  • pose
  • dynamic pose
  • tilt
  • anatomy

Week 5

Outcome

  • To paint with watercolours

 

Vocabulary

  • consistency
  • brush tip
  • palette
  • blending
  • realistic

Week 6

Outcome

  • To illustrate with watercolours

 

Vocabulary

  • texture
  • shading
  • blending
  • style
  • mood

Week 7

Outcome

  • To add details with pen

 

Vocabulary

  • outline
  • texture
  • enhance
  • fine
  • dash

Week 1

Outcome

  • To analyse and compare famous artists’ treatment of landscapes

 

Vocabulary

  • impressionistic
  • vibrant
  • chiaroscuro
  • perspective

Week 2

Outcome

  • To analyse the work of David Hockney and draw various elements of a landscape

 

Vocabulary

  • panoramic
  • aerial
  • spacial depth
  • seasonal
  • composition
  • ‘en plein air’

Week 3

Outcome

  • To draw a landscape in the style of David Hockney

 

Vocabulary

  • vanishing point
  • converging
  • pastoral
  • infinity
  • undulating

Week 4

Outcome

  • To paint a background tonally with a limited palette of poster paints

 

Vocabulary

  • colour saturation
  • colour wash
  • graduated colour
  • tone

Week 5

Outcome

  • To paint the foreground of a landscape

 

Vocabulary

  • focal point
  • atmospheric
  • vibrant
  • dramatic

Week 6

Outcome

  • To add textural details to a landscape

 

Vocabulary

  • dappled
  • texture
  • brushstrokes
  • contrasting
  • variegated

Week 1

Outcome

  • To look at the work and compare the different styles of famous artists who painted natural forms

 

Vocabulary

  • botanical
  • fantasy
  • naïve
  • primitive
  • simplistic

Week 2

Outcome

  • To make an observational drawing of natural forms

 

Vocabulary

  • decorative
  • floral
  • beauty
  • portion
  • close-up

Week 3

Outcome

  • To enlarge a picture with a viewfinder

 

Vocabulary

  • enlarge
  • view finder
  • cropping
  • focal point
  • composition

Week 4

Outcome

  • To shade tonally with poster paint

 

Vocabulary

  • shading
  • tonal
  • primary colours
  • secondary colours
  • palette

Week 5

Outcome

  • To paint an enlarged picture

 

Vocabulary

  • vibrant
  • blending
  • opacity
  • transparency
  • sculptural

Week 6

Outcome

  • To complete the painting of an enlarged picture

 

Vocabulary

  • highlight
  • background
  • texture
  • dramatic
  • realism

Week 7

Outcome

  • To add detail to complete a painting

 

Vocabulary

  • magnify
  • intense
  • American modernism
  • elements
  • detail

The Human Figure and Illustrations

Having started develop the skill of figure drawing in Year 4, Year 5 children progress to drawing the entire human figure with animals and in movement. They look at various artists’ depictions of the figure through illustrations and how illustrators use line and colour to create different styles and moods to suit stories.

Landscapes

Having briefly touched on landscapes, Year 5 study an iconic British artist, David Hockney and his interpretations of various landscapes using traditional materials and technology. They look at perspective, colour, tone and texture in the art and design. Using his painting ‘Garrowby Hill’ as inspiration they will create a landscape with a limited palette of poster paint concentrating on receding and advancing colours to enhance the perspective element, finally adding layered texture.

Computer Generated Art

There are links with the Year 5 computing curriculum which uses design software to recreate Maurits Escher’s work on repeating objects and patterns, especially his tessellations and Bridget Riley’s work on overlapping art and her restricted colour palette. Geometric patterns used in Islamic art, especially in the construction and design of mosques links with art and design as well as RE as Year 5 focus in the Autumn term on Islam and visit a mosque. Pupils create a virtual gallery in computing to exhibit their computer generated artwork.

Detailed Observational Drawings

As landscapes are made up of so many natural elements, the children now look at those more closely. They create detailed observational drawings of plants and animals. Using these sketches the children will paint a picture influenced by ‘Exotic landscape with monkeys and parrot’ by Henri Rousseau which illustrates the huge range of shapes, colours and textures in nature.

Autumn

paul-cezanne

Figure Drawing – Illustration

Traditional: The Bayeux Tapestry, Pauper’s Bible, John Newbery

Modern: Beatrix Potter

Contemporary: Quentin Blake, William Grill, Yasmeen Ismail

Spring

david-hockney

Landscapes

Traditional: Dong Yuan, John Constable, Caspar David Freidrich, J.M.W Turner

Modern: Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet

Contemporary: Richard Long, David Hockney, Andy Goldsworthy, Brian Eno

Summer

henri-rousseau

Natural Forms

Traditional: Turkish Iznik Jug, Maria Sybilla Merian, Rachel Ruysch, Otto Marseus van Schrieck

Modern: Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Henri Rousseau

Contemporary: Angie Lewin, Kate Malone

Year 6

Week 1

Outcome

  • To recall the proportions of the human figure for drawing

 

Vocabulary

  • proportion
  • symmetry
  • relative
  • waist
  • thigh

Week 2

Outcome

  • To draw people in different positions

 

Vocabulary

  • foreshortening
  • observation
  • anonymous
  • tormented
  • slouch

Week 3

Outcome

  • To sculpt a figure from clay

 

Vocabulary

  • freestanding
  • casting
  • abstraction
  • emotive
  • maquette

Week 4

Outcome

  • To describe the steps to create one-point perspective

 

Vocabulary

  • vanishing point
  • retreating
  • foreground
  • converge
  • background

Week 5

Outcome

  • To share and create emphasis using wax crayons

 

Vocabulary

  • highlight
  • waterproof
  • oil-based
  • resistant
  • low-light

Week 6

Outcome

  • To create sepia tones with watercolours over wax drawings

 

Vocabulary

  • sepia
  • reactive
  • transparent
  • pigments
  • muted

Week 7

Outcome

  • To add an oxide wash to clay

 

Vocabulary

  • iron oxide
  • manganese
  • oxide wash
  • pigment
  • highlight

Week 1

Outcome

  • To describe the style, and landscapes of Edward Hopper

 

Vocabulary

  • isolated
  • austere
  • melancholic
  • haunting
  • ‘en plein air’
  • ominous
  • innovative
  • desolate
  • naturalistic

Week 2

Outcome

  • To sketch lighthouses

 

Vocabulary

  • elevated
  • lofty
  • imposing
  • unmanned
  • immense
  • distant
  • exposed

Week 3

Outcome

  • To draw a seascape in the style of Hopper on cartridge paper

 

Vocabulary

  • horizon
  • uninterrupted
  • limitless
  • coastline
  • elements

Week 4

Outcome

  • To practise and experiment with watercolour effects for sea, hills and sky

 

Vocabulary

  • blotting
  • chromatic
  • aquamarine
  • granular
  • complementary
  • gouache

Week 5

Outcome

  • To paint the background elements of a landscape

 

Vocabulary

  • dimension
  • languid
  • starkly
  • graduation
  • asymmetrical
  • undulating
  • embedded

Week 6

Outcome

  • To paint to complete a painting

 

Vocabulary

  • luminosity
  • variegated
  • viewfinder
  • aquamedia
  • scumbling
  • perspective
  • graded wash
  • texture

Week 1

Outcome

  • To identify the work of some notable architects and styles, including Antoni Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry

 

Vocabulary

  • architect
  • architecture
  • Baroque
  • Neo-classical
  • Post-modernism
  • aesthetic

Week 2

Outcome

  • To design a basic building using two-point perspective using a model

 

Vocabulary

  • vanishing point
  • parallel
  • vertical
  • horizontal
  • perspective
  • proportion
  • horizon line

Week 3

Outcome

  • To design my own basic building using two-point perspective

 

Vocabulary

  • exterior
  • geometric,
  • linear,
  • converging,
  • realistic

Week 4

Outcome

  • To paint a design of a building with watercolours

 

Vocabulary

  • elevation
  • façade
  • functional
  • planes

Week 5

Outcome

  • To use watercolours to highlight parts of an architectural design

 

Vocabulary

  • feathering
  • surroundings
  • built environment

Week 6

Outcome

  • To add architectural details with pen

 

Vocabulary

  • elements
  • balustrade
  • terrace
  • two dimensional

Perspective and Figure Drawing

In Year 6, the children combine their knowledge of perspective and figure drawing to create a picture based on Henry Moore’s wartime art, depicting people sheltering in the underground in London during bomb raids. They discuss the emotions that must have influenced these pictures and how the artist shows this. Using this information, they create their own pictures of people in this situation. They use mixed media in their final piece.

Art History

Our pupils are able to appreciate and discuss artworks confidently having the knowledge and understanding of the history of it. They learn how meaning is communicated in images and artefacts through exploring Art History which is embedded within the curriculum.

Watercolours

Having used watercolours in previous years, the children in Year 6 now experiment with different watercolour techniques and how to create various effects including how to paint rocks, sea, sky and buildings. They look at the work of American realist painter, Edward Hopper and his paintings of lighthouses. Researching different lighthouses and creating preparatory sketches. Using their sketches and watercolour techniques, they create a final piece.

Architecture

Finally, having drawn buildings in perspective for their lighthouses, Year 6 looks at the history of architecture right up to the present day. Studying the buildings themselves and all the details that distinguish one period from another, they sketch windows and doors and any other decorative elements typical of a particular period. These evaluative skills are also used in design and technology projects to distinguish between different design periods. They then look at the buildings designed by a range of contemporary architects, particularly Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd-Wright, Frank Gehry and Zahar Hadid. Using this knowledge, they design their own preliminary watercolour sketches of a building with its surroundings.

Autumn

henry-moore

Sculpture – Human Form

Traditional: Chacmool, Classical sculptures

Modern: Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore

Contemporary: Anthony Gormley, Thomas Price

Spring

edward-hopper

Landscapes

Traditional: Dong Yuan, John Constable, Caspar David Freidrich, J.M.W Turner

Modern: Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edward Hopper

Contemporary: Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy, Brian Eno

Summer

zaha-hadid

Architecture

Styles: Baroque, Neo Classical, Modernism

Antoni Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry