Art and Design

Subject Intent Statement:

At Bowmandale, we believe the arts are a fundamental part of children’s education. The subject has a significant role within the taught curriculum, offering many SMSC and enrichment opportunities within school and across our community. Effective teaching encourages critical thinking and growth mindset, all whilst developing a sound understanding of the visual language and visual elements of art and design.

The National Curriculum for Art and Design aims to ensure that all pupil across all key stages:

Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Explore the textures, movement, feel and look of different media and materials
Respond to a range of media and materials, develop their understanding of them in order to manipulate and create different effects.
Use different media and materials to express their own ideas
Explore colour and use for a particular purpose
Develop skills to use simple tools and techniques competently and appropriately
Select appropriate media and techniques and adapt their work where necessary

At Bowmandale, our children develop 3 types of knowledge:

Practical knowledge
The children are given opportunity to decide what techniques, what creative and imaginative ideas to use and what materials/media to experiment with within an art lesson. This is taught through repeated practice, play and exploration. There are plenty of opportunities to build on pupils' competencies so that skills become autonomous. Children practise techniques such as sculpture, mosaic and printing amongst many more medias in order to become proficient. These are taught in line with the year group’s termly topic. Children are provided with the ownership of a sketchbook in Year One and this moves up through each year group with them. This enables our learners to see a clear journey of progression in art and design. More detail can be found on the progression document.
Theoretical knowledge
Children develop knowledge of artists, crafters and designers through art history. At Bowmandale, we incorporate studying a diverse set of artists through our topics. We learn how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our everyday lives. Our children learn about how artists are influenced by the work of other artists, their political situation and different cultural traditions.
Disciplinary knowledge
Our children are encouraged to look at and talk about art. They reflect on how art is presented to them and their own works.

At Bowmandale we have 2 different types of art outcome:

Divergent end points
This is creative and exploratory. This outcome allows our children to display their knowledge in an experimental manner.
Convergent end points
This is a set and defined outcome that displays a specific skill eg. mixing colours.

Our children’s learning is further enhanced with whole school showcases. These include our annual Bowmandale’s Got Talent show, our participation in local community events such as the Barton Carnival and a yearly ‘Art Week’ in which individual and collaborative art is celebrated through Bowmandale’s Art Gallery.

We are thrilled to have been recognised for our commitment to the Arts and have now received our Artsmark Gold Award. Here are our Creative Council displaying our award with pride.