Art and Design
We love Art and Design at Brierley!
"Creativity is critical thinking and without it how are you going to open up and ask harder questions? Art opens up those… possibilities to think beyond what we already know." Catherine Opie, artist.
The Brierley Art Curriculum develops children’s ability to observe, interpret and appreciate the world around them. Over time, they grow confident in expressing their thoughts and feelings, and in creating artwork inspired by their own imagination and ideas. Our Art Curriculum is both intellectually stimulating and creatively challenging. From the very start of their learning journey at Brierley, children engage regularly with the arts, sparking curiosity and imagination through the materials and media they explore, and laying strong foundations for future artistic learning.
At Brierley, we aim to deliver the National Curriculum goals for art and design, ensuring that all children:
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produce creative work by exploring ideas and recording their experiences
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become skilled in drawing, painting, sculpture, and a range of art, craft and design techniques (including textiles and collage)
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evaluate and analyse artistic works using appropriate art, craft and design vocabulary
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learn about significant artists, craft makers and designers, gaining an understanding of the historical and cultural development of different art forms.
Essential knowledge for artists includes:
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Knowledge of techniques
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Knowledge of materials
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Knowledge of processes
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Knowledge of artists
Essential skills for artists include:
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The ability to draw, paint and sculpt creatively
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The ability to produce both observational and imaginative artwork
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The ability to analyse and evaluate creative work
At Brierley, we recognise the central role of drawing within art and design. Our approach, supported by Kapow Primary, provides a structured and developmental pathway for teaching drawing and associated vocabulary. This includes building fine motor control, understanding line and shape, exploring light and dark, and learning a range of drawing techniques and methods.
We use Kapow Primary as the foundation for progression in art at Brierley School, adapting lessons to reflect the interests of our children and linking learning to wider areas of the Brierley curriculum. Kapow Primary’s Art and Design scheme is designed as a spiral curriculum built around three key principles:
✓ Cyclical learning: Pupils revisit core skills repeatedly throughout their primary years.
✓ Increasing depth: Each return to a skill introduces greater complexity, broadening knowledge of techniques, materials and processes, as well as understanding of artists, craft makers and designers.
✓ Building on prior knowledge: Each revisit draws on what pupils have previously learned, enabling them to progress rather than start anew.
Using Kapow Primary as our basis ensures that themes and activities are well matched to the subject and appropriate for each year group. However, we also adapt themes in response to children’s interests and passions, and we draw on other curriculum areas to inspire creative work. As a result, some themes may differ slightly from those suggested by Kapow, but the core knowledge and progression remain consistent and secure.
Assessment
We use a system of formative assessment throughout each lesson. At the end of the lesson children who have not met or exceed the Curriculum Learning Goal are noted. This not only enables our teachers to find any gaps in the children’s understanding and therefore provide support, to ensure children are ready to meet the next lesson's expectations but this system regularly enables our teachers to find opportunities to challenge our children even further. Our assessment procedures allow for the tracking of pupil progress with this subject.
For monitoring of assessment data, we then use the Insight system to input the level of attainment of each child, which is a teacher judgement based on National Curriculum expectations and formative assessment data. This data is stored then reviewed regularly to help teachers review their progress, and at the end of the school year is passed onto the next teachers to build upon.
