Intent

At Whitley Park, we strive to deliver an ambitious art and design curriculum, ensuring coverage of the aims and targets of the National Curriculum, whilst securing access and achievement for all of our students. Our curriculum enables students to express creatively their original ideas and personal experiences. Students produce their own works of art, craft and design, and have continual opportunities for progression without fear of mistakes. Self-expression is widely recognised as playing a vital role in maintaining good mental health, and therefore the Whitley Park curriculum promotes art as a valuable creative outlet. Students are engaged, inspired and challenged through varied and rich experiences that develop skills, knowledge and, in turn, cultural capital for every child. We encourage students to take creative risks through experimentation and innovation of learnt techniques and skills. The balance between breadth and depth is key to our curriculum; it is important that our students be introduced to a wide range of skills with different media, but also that these are revisited and skills developed progressively, both in isolation and in context of thematic topics and artists. Likewise, study of artists, craft makers and designers is balanced between the historical greats and contemporary and diverse artists, in order to promote aspiration and self-belief for all of our students, regardless of gender, socio-economic, cultural or ethnic background. Students explore the impact of art and design on culture and creativity, and how this has shaped our nation’s history and its place within the world. They have regular and progressive opportunities to engage critically with works of art and to evaluate their own work, developing use of technical vocabulary to communicate their thoughts accurately and specifically.

Please click on the links below to view our Years 1-6 Art and Design Curriculum Overviews.