Art

Intent

At Shakespeare Primary, we are highly ambitious for every pupil in Art and Design. Our curriculum is designed to ensure that all children, regardless of background or starting point, are entitled to experience the very best of art education. We aim to nurture creativity, imagination and visual literacy, while developing pupils who think, work and communicate like confident artists and designers.

We expect pupils to engage deeply with high-quality artistic processes, materials and techniques, enabling them to produce work of increasing sophistication and originality. Through exposure to significant artists, designers and movements from a range of cultures and time periods, pupils develop a rich understanding of art as a powerful form of human expression and as an important part of our shared cultural heritage.

Our curriculum encourages pupils to take creative risks, refine their ideas and reflect critically on their own work and the work of others. We place high value on resilience, independence and pride in craftsmanship, ensuring pupils strive for excellence in everything they create.

We are equally ambitious for our staff. The curriculum supports teachers in developing strong subject knowledge and confidence, enabling them to deliver inspiring, high-quality lessons. It is carefully designed to be inclusive yet challenging, ensuring that every pupil is supported to achieve exceptionally well.

The curriculum is structured around five key strands:

Generating ideas
Using sketchbooks
Making skills (including the formal elements of art)
Knowledge of artists
Evaluating and analysing

Together, these strands ensure rigorous coverage of practical, theoretical and disciplinary knowledge, supporting sustained progression, creative confidence and high-level critical thinking.

Implementation

Art and Design is taught through one dedicated session per week across three carefully sequenced units in each year group. Learning is organised in blocks, with Art and Design taught in alternate half-terms to Design and Technology, allowing pupils time to deepen their understanding and refine their skills in line with National Curriculum expectations and beyond.

Each lesson begins with structured retrieval activities that revisit and strengthen prior learning. These activities are designed to embed key knowledge securely in long-term memory and ensure pupils are well prepared to access new, more challenging content.

Lessons are underpinned by high-quality modelling, clear success criteria and exposure to exemplary artwork. Teachers explicitly teach technical skills, artistic vocabulary and evaluative language, while providing regular opportunities for experimentation, practice and refinement.

Pupils are encouraged to work with increasing independence and precision, revisiting and improving their work through thoughtful feedback and self-reflection. High expectations are consistently reinforced, and pupils are supported to produce work of the highest possible standard.

Impact

Assessment in Art and Design is purposeful and continuous. Teachers use questioning, retrieval practice, observation and discussion to evaluate pupils’ understanding and skill development in real time, enabling swift and effective adaptation of teaching.

Each unit includes a formal assessment quiz to monitor pupils’ retention of key knowledge, vocabulary and techniques. This ensures that learning is secure and that pupils are prepared for increasingly demanding artistic challenges.

Pupils demonstrate their learning through high-quality sketchbooks, annotated studies, written reflections and ambitious creative outcomes. They confidently discuss their work using subject-specific language and show a clear understanding of artistic processes and intentions.

By the time pupils leave Shakespeare Primary, they are skilled, knowledgeable and reflective artists who take pride in their work. They have experienced a rich, challenging and inspiring curriculum that equips them with the technical ability, cultural understanding and creative confidence to succeed in future learning and to engage meaningfully with the arts throughout their lives.