At St Joseph’s, we pride ourselves on our creative lessons – Art and Design being a firm favourite for our pupils. Teachers plan Art lessons linked to the half-termly topics in each year group. Children often study a well-known artist, designer, architect or sculptor in every topic, from Kandinsky, Andy Warhol, William Morris to Andy Goldworthy. Pupils are given time to look at the work, evaluate what they see and are then taught to create their own interpretation.

St Joseph’s Approach to Art Art & Design Long Term Plan  

Tracking Progress in Art and Design

The way children express their artistic style is very unique and individual and all art can be appreciated. However, it is important that we assess the children’s understanding of, and their ability to use, the different artistic skill and techniques taught, therefore we assess the children’s knowledge and understanding every half term. Each child is assessed against the skill they have been taught, for example – shading, painting, evaluating an artists work. An overall assessment is given on how each child has performed during the half-term.

Cross-curricular links

We see Art as a pleasure and a way of expressing ourselves in a creative way. It is a way of looking at the world around us, of asking questions and developing ideas. Art is about investigating. As with all of our subjects at St Joseph’s, we use Art in many other lessons and not just in the weekly Art lessons on our timetables. We use Art in other subjects, to expressing our thoughts and ideas in RE, to highlighting our emotions in PSHE and Music, to learning about our environment in Geography. Art can be used in a number of ways and we like to take these opportunities whenever we can.

We are lucky to have wonderful grounds and a wooded area at St Joseph’s and we try to take our lessons outside wherever we can. Art can also be used in our B2L lessons and this is something our pupils thoroughly enjoy.

Useful Links:

Art can be appreciated outside of the school gates too, take a look at the links below about local art galleries. There is also a link to a great website that provides fun and exciting art activities for you to do at home:

Leeds Art GalleryThe HepworthThe Artful ParentTate kidsYorkshire Sculpture Park Salts Mill

What does Art and Design look like in our school?