“Art and design is the freedom of the individual, the freedom of expression and the freedom to fail without retort.”   Simon Waterfall

           “Art develops spiritual values and contributes a wider understanding to the experience of life, which helps build a balanced personality.” Bridgit Riley

  Art and design isn’t a just subject to learn, but an activity you can practise: with your hands, your eyes, your whole personality.” Quentin Blake

A high-quality art and design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. 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.

At St Alban’s we inspire our children to be creative, independent, have freedom of expression and interpretation of what their own “art” is. There is no “wrong” way to create art, and children should not feel their work has to look a certain way. Celebrate difference and individuality.

At St Alban’s we have developed an art scheme that follows the aims of The National Curriculum for Art and Design. Pupils…

• 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

National Curriculum 2013

In each Year group the children are taught:

• Three different art disciplines from drawing ,painting, collage, textiles, printing and sculpture.

In their school career each child will be taught:

• Twelve projects in drawing or painting, and three projects in each of collage, textiles, printing and sculpture. Allowing them to systematically build on their skills and knowledge throughout the whole art curriculum. (See long term plan).

Our sketchbooks are the main body of evidence for our children’s projects from FS1 to Year 6. Sketchbooks have been an essential part of the creative process for  4  artists of all disciplines, ranging from textiles and jewellery to interior design, printmaking and ceramics. It is a complete record of the creative process which, it can even be argued, is more important than the finished object at the end of this process.

When we display the children’s finished pieces, the sketchbooks are also play an integral part to show the children’s development of skills and knowledge and their journey towards the final piece and they themselves can be displayed alongside or on a surface below the display etc. We want the children to be proud of them, and want to share with others their ideas and creativity, as they arguably are a work of art in themselves!

Teachers also have their own sketchbook to model for the children in.

The sketchbook for each project shows evidence of:

Gathering inspiration      Exploring art media       Developing understanding       Recording responses       Reviewing artwork      Making modifications     Evaluating

They will contain not just sketches but different media such as pictures from magazines, postcards, cuttings, artefacts eg pressed leaves, notes, copies of famous works and information about artists being studied too. It will include the children’s thoughts about their work, comparisons to artists and experiments with colour mixing, sewing stitch samples or swatches of fabrics, beads, buttons, or collage materials etc.Opening the sketchbooks will be like opening the door to an Aladdin’s cave of creativity!