Art and Design
The All Saints’ Way…
Art and Design Curriculum Intent...
Discovering God | Learning Together | Achieving Our Best
At All Saints’, we believe that art is a powerful way for children to discover God’s creativity, express their own ideas, and respond to the world around them. Through a high-quality, progressive art curriculum, we enable all children to become confident, thoughtful artists with the ability to make meaningful decisions about the skills, styles, and media they use.
Art offers children a visual, tactile, and sensory journey. It provides a unique way of understanding themselves, others, and their environment. Rooted in our Christian ethos, art becomes a spiritual and reflective practice—an act of creativity that mirrors our Creator and enriches our school community.
We learn together through the Kapow Primary Art Scheme, which is built around five key strands:
- Generating ideas
- Using sketchbooks
- Making skills, including the formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour)
- Knowledge of artists
- Evaluating and analysing
These strands are embedded within a spiral curriculum model that revisits skills and concepts with increasing complexity, supporting long-term knowledge retention and mastery. Lessons are carefully sequenced and organised into four core areas:
- Drawing
- Painting and mixed-media
- Sculpture and 3D
- Craft and design
By engaging with the work of a wide range of artists and cultural traditions, pupils gain insight and inspiration. They explore,key to achieving their best as artists and individuals.
At All Saints’, we echo the words of artist Bob and Roberta Smith: "All schools should be art schools." We are proud to offer a rich and joyful art education that empowers every child to flourish creatively, spiritually, and intellectually.
Implementation...
Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children to flourish to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be. We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression in the form of Kapow Primary. The Kapow Art scheme of work is designed with four strands that run throughout.
These are:
• Making skills
• Formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour)
• Knowledge of artists
• Evaluating
We have three half terms per year for a focus on art and design. We provide opportunities for children to explore art, not just in these designated art lessons, but also across the curriculum wherever appropriate in order to bring topics to life. Key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows pupils to revise and build on their previous learning.
As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
Impact…
By the time the children finish their art education at All Saints they should be proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques. Children should be able to evaluate and analyse creative works using subject-specific language.
The evidence of this work is collected within the art sketchbook which follows the children through the school; a portfolio that shows progression and is a proud reflection that children enjoy and value Art and Design.
We celebrate the art created by our children, showcasing it proudly around our school, turning it into saleable products (Christmas cards) and entering into local and national competitions.
“Art is not just a subject to learn, but an activity that you can practise with your hands, your eyes, your whole personality.”
Quentin Blake
