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Art & Design

At Harris Academy Chafford Hundred we aim to provide a rich, broad and stimulating curriculum, that encourages creativity and imagination. We believe the creative process is a balance of thinking and acting creatively, which involves taking risks in order to progress and produce original ideas and outcomes. Our Art and Design department encourages and celebrates the individuality of each student, which provides a learning environment that’s ensures high achievement, high attainment and that also enables all students to succeed. We believe our creative and rich curriculum can help raise attainment by boosting our student’s confidence and self-esteem, whilst also catering for all abilities to ensure growth and progress is made. A range of techniques, processes and methods using traditional media and digital languages will prepare our students to demonstrate creativity and confidently develop skill sets to create a body of work drawn from their experiences and surroundings. Our aim is for pupils to progress and when doing so they should be able to think more critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of Art and Design. We want our students to develop an appreciation for the Art of today by having a broad understanding and experience of Art from the past including the great masterpieces that have shaped and formed civilisations across the globe.

Aims:

The national curriculum for Art and Design aims to ensure all 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 of Art.
Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, understanding the cultural and historical developments of their art forms.

Implementation:

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Art and Design, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school and increases in complexity through each key stage, building upon and recalling prior knowledge to expand and develop skills across a range of techniques and processes. We start with exploring the formal elements of Art as the foundation for all our students learning as this will support all subsequent work, alongside offering a mixture of Fine Art and Art Textiles opportunities throughout KS3. This not only expands their experience within Art but also broadens their knowledge and skill set to enable them to make informative choices at GCSE when choosing their next pathway of either GCSE Fine Art or GCSE Art Textiles. At KS3 we have carefully considered the key aspects of required learning in the form of knowledge and skill to form our curriculum, especially as we only see them for 6 lessons a term.

In year 7 the focus is the fundamental elements that encompass the aesthetics of Art throughout history. These building blocks are commonly referred to as the “formal elements” and include Line, Tone, Pattern, Colour, Texture, Shape and Form. The understanding of these elements as a starting point will support future learning and develop greater insights into artist analysis and evaluation with regards to own practice. We reference artists such as Georgiou Morandi and Hundertwasser to support and engage students learning of the formal elements, whilst also introducing the steps of how to analyse artists work to have contextual knowledge and understanding of the processes used.

In Year 8 students will build upon their knowledge and proficiency of the elements of Art by studying a range of themes beginning with looking at portraiture and how to apply the formal elements to create skin tone, texture, depth and form. Students learn skills in proportion and scale, alongside exploring the art movement of Neo Expressionism and the artwork of Jean Paul Basquiat; here we discuss the role of the artist? How artists are influenced by others? And how a portrait reflects more than just the aesthetic of the sitter. They will recall knowledge of the colour wheel exploring the ideas of using colour as a mode of expression, and the use of line to create movement, shape and focal points. Alongside this they will be introduced to new terminology and themes in art such as, typography, abstract art, cubism in the form of distorted imagery, and pop art. During this topic students will be asked to reflect on their own identity, interests and heritage and will be given opportunities to express this throughout the project. Finding out more about themselves is our priority as they reflect not only on their physical appearance in a mirror, but begin to think about symbolism and encouraging them to think more deeply about who they are. By participating in this reflective practice students will become more astute in observation and viewing the world around them, as well as exploring composition and the impact that has upon creating narratives and outcome designs.

In Year 9 a continued focus on the formal elements will be present in their learning, providing an opportunity for students to translate their refined drawing skills across a range of mediums, thus yet to experience. They will begin by exploring and recording a timeline showing how food has been used within art since the Renaissance period all the way through to contemporary times at present. They will explore in depth the art movements discussed on this timeline over the course of Year 9 which focus on the Renaissance period, Baroque, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Pop Art and Contemporary Art. They will understand how the symbolism behind food depicted in art has changed and evolved over the centuries and explore key artists from each period to understand their interpretation of food within their own artwork. Alongside this they will learn more about various styles of art, be introduced to a variety of mediums and application techniques, and expand their pre-existing knowledge on the formal elements to construct their own art pieces along the way. We aim to give the students a practical insight to art history and the evolution of food.

At KS4 we begin with a strong emphasis on drawing as a starting point to create confidence within our students before exploring and instilling the four assessments objectives through a range of practical techniques and outcomes. We always focus on developing concepts and ideas based on a project theme(s), as this is the format for their externally set assignment and final exam, as a result and due to the nature of the subject there is always scope for varied interpretation and a range of creative outcomes being produced. The aim is for students to understand the process of developing ideas from a starting point to a final outcome; gaining knowledge on how to develop these ideas through refinement, reflection, technique process and inspiring artists.

The GCSE coursework unit (Component 1 is worth 60%) is divided into two separate projects to create two independently resolved components. Their first project (Reflections and Realism) will be essentially teacher-led with the introduction of new media and techniques while encouraging the proficiency of previously introduced materials. Students will have the opportunity to become more independent in their choice of artistic influences throughout the course of the project that will be guided upon their own independent research. Students resolve their ideas making connections across their investigation to produce meaningful and imaginative outcomes. We make sure to build upon their strong foundation skills developed at KS3 yet embark on a more in-depth approach to produce sustained, developed and refined outcomes. We broaden students’ skill sets through workshops in more specialists’ disciplines such as printmaking, photography and artist workshops. Their second project will be more diverse in project theme options (we offer three themes for students to choose from based on their own personal preference and interest) to prepare them in advance for their externally set assignment by AQA. At this stage we will introduce them to idea of visual mind mapping from which students take a more personal and independent direction in their work. Both projects will conclude with a large-scale final piece in media of their choice.

The emphasis at A Level is on the depth of study and the development of the student’s own practice as an artist. Again, drawing is at the heart of the curriculum. A Level Art and Design differs from GCSE Art and Design in the quality and depth of visual and aesthetic understanding demanded of the subject. The broad-based route will enable students to explore a range of two or three-dimensional approaches to their studies. Work produced will demonstrate the use of formal elements and creative skills, and give visual form to thinking, feeling, observation, design and ideas. Students will show evidence of trying to extend their own and others’ ways of seeing the world.

The journey at KS5 begins with a mixture of practical workshops and lectures, broadening their experimentation and drawing skills, all the while making connections to a wider context explored through their lecture-based learning. We focus on mastering a range of skills, with both teacher and artist led workshops and separate mini projects in printmaking, painting, typography and mixed media. We learn technical approaches, revisit prior knowledge from KS3 and 4 to generate a portfolio of work. In this initial stage, students will be encouraged to work out of their comfort zone, be ambitious with their outcomes and in turn build confidence in their knowledge of Art and their technique. After students have completed their broad portfolio, we introduce the personal investigation component alongside a series of written-based workshops to support their journey in starting their own project and at a later stage towards writing a 3000-word essay. These tasks are aimed to expand students’ thinking, context and use of literacy including key terminologies and specialist vocabulary. Students are encouraged to develop meaningful and personal questions for their investigations, to create a solid starting point to begin with. We then embark on a developed process of research, respond, develop and conclude as their project builds towards an final resolution. In the final stage of year 13, students complete an externally set assignment where a final investigation allows them to demonstrate their personal response to a pre-set stimulus. This assignment involves three months of sustained focused and independent preparation to produce a 15-hour outcome.

Impact

At Harris Academy Chafford Hundred, we aim to make a positive impact to develop confident, creative and inquisitive students. Within the Academy the curriculum we have planned will make a profound and positive impact to the progress of every child, through the delivery of a high-quality teaching of lessons. We aim to measure the impact of our curriculum and the teaching and learning using a range of data available to us, such as; ATL (attitude towards learning), classroom behaviour and engagement and students’ overall progress. Our use of Low, Mid and High-stake assessments will give a clear indication of the quality of the Art and Design curriculum as a whole and the level of progress our students are making across the key stages. We will utilise our students’ sketchbooks to monitor the impact of our curriculum as this is where students will record their academic journey within Art and Design and document their progress and understanding of the subject; this will then inform our curriculum reviews and planning at the end of each academic year.