Art and Design
Our aims
At Scotton Lingerfield Primary School, we want children to see themselves as artists. Our art and design curriculum gives them opportunities to explore ideas, experiment with materials and develop the skills to express themselves creatively. We encourage children to be curious, make their own choices and recognise that trying something out, making changes and learning from mistakes are all part of the creative process.
Children encounter a range of artists, craftspeople and artistic movements, helping them appreciate different approaches to art and understand how it reflects the time and culture in which it was created. Through this, they develop their own interests and learn to talk thoughtfully about their work and the work of others.
How we teach art
Our curriculum follows a two-year rolling programme for our mixed-age classes. From Year 1 onwards, children study drawing in the autumn, painting in the spring and sculpture in the summer. Each strand is revisited as children move through school, building their knowledge, extending their techniques and introducing new materials and artistic influences.
Our progression documents set out how learning develops from Reception to Year 6. Although children in a mixed-age class may explore the same artist or movement, teaching builds on their previous learning and provides appropriate challenge. Children gradually move from exploring materials and techniques towards making more deliberate, independent choices about how to communicate their ideas.
Artists and their work provide starting points for exploration. Children learn about their approaches, practise relevant techniques and use what they discover to inform their own artwork.
We include male and female artists from varied cultural backgrounds, studying historical and contemporary work to broaden children’s understanding of art and the people who create it. Our local environment also provides inspiration. Children observe the natural world and explore how recycled materials can be used creatively, particularly in sculpture.
In Reception, children have daily opportunities to explore creative materials indoors and outdoors, working on both small and large scales alongside planned teaching.
Teachers adapt resources, tools and support to help children participate and develop their skills, while encouraging increasingly independent choices.
Building skills across ages and stages
In Reception, children explore colour, texture, shape and form through drawing, painting, collage and sculpture. They practise using pencils, brushes and small tools, mix colours and investigate materials through activities such as portraits, splatter painting, recycled models and land art. A shared class sketchbook records ideas and discoveries. Children talk about what they have made and describe the materials and processes they have used.
In Years 1 and 2, children develop greater control and begin to use individual sketchbooks to collect ideas, experiment and record observations. In drawing, they explore different marks using pencils, pens, chalks and markers, and begin drawing from observation. In painting, they learn to recognise primary colours and mix secondary colours. Sculpture develops their ability to manipulate materials through rolling, kneading and pinching, as well as exploring how paper, card and fabric can become three-dimensional forms. Children begin to explain their preferences and listen to others’ responses to their work.
In Years 3 and 4, children extend their techniques and become more thoughtful about the effects they create. They use materials such as graphite, charcoal and oil pastels to explore line, texture, pattern, tone and colour, including through observational landscape drawing. Painting develops their understanding of colour mixing and introduces opportunities to combine painting and printing. In sculpture, children learn to use clay techniques such as pinching, coiling, slab building and joining, alongside constructing with natural, recycled and manufactured materials. Sketchbooks become a place to test ideas, revisit earlier work and consider what to try next.
In Years 5 and 6, children draw on their growing knowledge to make increasingly independent artistic choices. Drawing and painting place greater emphasis on form, shape and the human figure, with children exploring a wider range of media and more subtle colour mixing, including skin tones. Sculpture introduces more complex processes, including carving, casting and building structures over an armature. Children use their sketchbooks to develop and refine ideas, make connections with artists’ work and reflect on their creative decisions. They discuss both how and why artwork has been made and use feedback to improve their own work.
Developing confidence and understanding
Throughout school, children learn the vocabulary they need to describe techniques, explain their choices and discuss artwork respectfully. Reflection is part of the whole process: children consider what is working, what they might change and how their ideas have developed.
We value both the finished artwork and the exploration that leads to it. By the end of Year 6, we want children to have a broad range of practical skills, an appreciation of different artists and art forms, and the confidence to develop and express their own ideas.
Our Long Term Plan and Progression Document can be found through the links below.
National curriculum programme of study
