ART

The time allocated for Art is 2 x 35 minute periods a week, which are timetabled as a double lesson, for all year groups up to and including Year 6. Years 7 and 8 have a double lesson of Art for one and a half terms and have D.T. for the other term and a half.

Children in the Prep school can also opt to join an Art activity session lasting 35 minutes.

An Art scholarship session is also held, by invitation, for the most promising artists, on a Thursday afternoon for 40 minutes.

Art is taught in two specialist Art rooms, one for Pre-Prep and one for the Prep school, plus a ceramics studio for use by both the Prep and Pre-Prep.

PRINCIPLES FOR THE TEACHING OF ART

• Art provides us with a visual language for communication, aids our comprehension of the environment, increases our aesthetic sensibilities and enriches personal experience.
• A knowledge and appreciation of the work of a range of artists and traditional and contemporary techniques contributes to an understanding of our own and other cultures.
• The purpose of Art education is to enable the children to acquire the skills, concepts and knowledge necessary for them to express their responses to ideas and experiences in a visual or tactile form.
• While it is essentially a practical subject, Art should provide opportunities for reflection and, with increasing sensitivity, pupils should acquire the ability to make informed, critical responses to their own work and that of others.

 

AIMS

Our aims when teaching Art are that all children will:
 

• build upon their natural pleasure in visual communication.
• develop a sense of expression through personal ideas in an original and sensitive manner.
• be introduced to a wide range of materials and techniques and be allowed time and opportunity to gain an understanding of their characteristics and use them competently and with confidence.
• develop their visual and creative awareness through direct experience of their environment.
• develop an appropriate vocabulary to help them understand and discuss their own work and that of others.
• develop awareness of different forms of visual art; evaluate and appreciate artists’ work from their own and other cultures.
• find a sense of purpose, achievement and fulfilment in artistic expression.

OBJECTIVES

In Art the children will be able to:

• develop an understanding of colour, form, texture and pattern.
• develop their creativity and imagination by being provided with visual, tactile and sensory experiences.
• explore the world at first hand, using all their senses.
• use materials and processes to communicate ideas, feelings and meanings.
• develop their sense of design and composition.
• develop their aesthetic awareness and become actively involved in shaping and enhancing their environment.
• respond critically and imaginatively to ideas, images and objects of many kinds and from many cultures.
• work in a safe and stimulating environment which allows them to gain confidence and pleasure through their artistic development.