Art & Design
At St Christopher’s Primary School, our Art curriculum is knowledge-rich, designed to develop pupils' artistic skills alongside a deep critical understanding and a growing love for the subject discipline. By exploring the work of diverse artists, architects, and designers, children learn to make meaningful connections between historical contexts, artistic concepts, and their own creative practice.
Key Features of Our Art Curriculum:
- Complex Learning & Connections: Children critically evaluate famous works of art and relate those insights directly to their own creations. Through this continuous, reflective process, pupils learn to analyse intricate artistic choices while developing individual expression and discovering their own identity as artists.
- Concepts & Types of Art: Learning is structured around core formal elements—including line, shape, colour, tone, form, space, and texture—and how artists manipulate them across various styles, media, and movements (such as abstract art, impressionism, portraits, and traditional cultural styles).
- Progressive Skill & Knowledge Development: Practical skills are developed progressively across drawing, painting, 3D form, collage, textiles, printmaking, and mixed media. Key concepts (such as Style in Art and Narrative Painting) are introduced in Key Stage 1 and revisited in higher year groups with increasing complexity.
- Structured Process & Independent Study: Pupils practice the full artistic process—from early verbal observations and observational drawing in Key Stage 1, through to independent investigation, sketching, annotation, and planning by the end of Key Stage 2.
Our approach balances structured skill mastery with rich opportunities for self-expression, equipping children with the tools and confidence to experiment, invent, and thrive as young artists.
