Art

The teaching of Art at Icknield focuses on a combination of art appreciation and the development of key skills in artistic design.   

Sketchbooks are used in KS1 and KS2 to support the exploration and refinement of ideas in order to produce high quality art work across the school.    Artist Studies have been chosen for each year group to ensure that a range of styles and periods are considered. Pupils do not just learn facts about the life of the artist – they explore their artwork and style, recreating their own work inspired by the study.  

Pupils experience working with a range of medium, including pencil, pastel, acrylic, watercolour, collage and clay.     A clear progression document in Art details how children’s work becomes more detailed and sophisticated as they move through the school and clear modelling by the teacher helps our students to master the required skills in Art.    Teachers break down complex pieces in to a series of smaller steps, meaning that all children can produce work which they are proud of.      

Children are encouraged to evaluate their own work as well as offering critiques of the artists’ work that they are studying.   

The Artsmark Award supports our pupils’ learning and helps to ensure that staff have the continued professional development needed to deliver high quality Art lessons; children have access to visits from real artists and designers to support their learning further.