At Hurworth, we value art as an important part of our children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum.  We aim to provide our children with art lessons that will excite and engage them, promote their curiosity and inspire them to be creative.

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The children are given opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge using a range of media and materials. We have taken great care to ensure that our art curriculum is dynamic – that skills that children learn as they progress through each year group of school are clearly defined but the vehicle through which they can be delivered can change, thus allowing teachers flexibility to respond to a cohort’s particular interest or a key cultural event happening that year.

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Throughout their time in school, children learn drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles and 3D work, explore the works of famous artists (and their impact on our culture) and learn the associated vocabulary and language. Children are encouraged to take risks and experiment and then reflect on why some ideas and techniques are successful or not for a particular project. The skills they acquire are applied meaningfully to their cross-curricular topics, allowing children to use their art skills to explore topics in greater depth.  That said, we believe strongly that the children study art for its own sake and in its own right, not just as a tool for other learning.

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Picasso once said ‘Every child is an artist.’ Our aim is to nurture that creativity, right from the moment each child begins their journey in our school family, and enable children of all skill levels to express themselves through art, including the most disadvantaged and those with SEND. We want children to develop their unique skills and grow with the understanding that the work they create does not have to be photographically accurate in order to be ‘good’ or for them to be a ‘good artist’. The children will see that art can take very different forms and styles, using a variety of media, and their mental well-being, self-esteem and self-confidence will be enhanced by the praise and encouragement they receive, resulting in them finding their individual style and voice in art.

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The document below provides an overview of our Art curriculum for each year group.