Art and Design
Curriculum Intent – Art and Design
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” - Pablo Picasso
Powerful Knowledge
At Leeds East Academy we teach a skills-based Art curriculum, which allows students to express their creative imagination as well as providing them with opportunities to practise and develop mastery in the key processes of Art: drawing, painting, printing, photography, craft and graphic design. In the Art department, students will develop their understanding of the visual language of Art with effective teaching and carefully thought out sequences of lessons and experiences. This will be underpinned by the Advanced Cognitive Performance characteristics and the Values, Attitudes and Attributes of High Performance Learning. These ACPs and VAAs will support students in embedding their skills, knowledge and understanding of Art.
Powerful knowledge in Art and Design:
- Understand and investigate the unique qualities of different art materials and processes and being able to exploit these within practical work. Students will use the ACP Linking skills of Generalisation and Connection Finding to apply knowledge of how Art materials and processes are used in different styles of Art and Media in similar ways.
- Students are encouraged to use their imagination through a wide variety of media and manipulative skills are developed as well as an awareness of colour, texture, design and dimension. Students will use the ACP Linking skills of Abstraction and Imagination to assess the variety of media styles and techniques.
- Developing the use of visual language by seeing, understanding, questioning, practising and mastery. Students will use the ACP Meta Thinking skill of Meta-Cognition to transfer their knowledge from prior projects to developing new projects.
- Develop an understanding of the main Art movements and theories through making connections with different historical, contemporary and cultural events. Students will use the VAA of Empathetic to develop this knowledge by using Concerned for Society to understand Art Movements and their impact on society and culture. They will use the ACP Linking skill of Big Picture Thinking, to understand the contribution of these movements to famous and popular Art pieces.
- Develop confidence in oral language and critical thinking skills through analysing and expressing opinions using artistic terminology and vocabulary. Students will use the ACP Analysing skills of Critical or Logical Thinking and Complex and Multi-Step Problem Solving to apply their skills and knowledge to their practical work.
Create and evaluate artwork as set out in the National Curriculum and so will enable the children to reach and exceed their potential. Students will use the ACP Meta Thinking skills of Self-Regulation and Meta-Cognition to self-correct practical work and transfer knowledge from one project to another.
Curriculum Features
Art and Design stands within the creative strand of the curriculum. Within the subject we will supply our students with the skills and confidence to enable them to work imaginatively. Students will be encouraged and supported to develop skills when participating in collaborative projects through encouragement of critical thinking and risk taking. We have designed our curriculum in such a way that it inspires a deep passion for Art which encourages personal expression through imaginative and creative opportunities. Students continually revisit a broad range of skills, and build upon them each year, tackling increasingly challenging concepts. As each step in a learning journey develops, it incorporates a deeper understanding of prior learning. At the heart of our curriculum design are increasing levels of challenge, risk taking and unpredictable outcomes that require a deep level of understanding and the ability to think creatively and demonstrate resilience to overcome obstacles. Year on year, our curriculum introduces every member of our school community to a wide range of Art and artists, including those from different periods and cultures. This in turn allows us to build on the cultural capital of our students and creates world citizens, with an understanding of how Art impacts and enhances societies and our surroundings. Embedded in our curriculum is the exploration of the work of other artists and designers from a vast spectrum of backgrounds, genders, ethnicities and beliefs. This journey gives our students a voice with which to express their thoughts, feelings about and responses to the world around them and enables our students to achieve their full potential. Students will use the VAA of Hardworking to develop their practical skills by using Practice, Perseverance and Resilience. KS4 students can opt for GCSE Art, Craft and Design, GCSE Graphics Communication or GCSE Photography. Students are set personalised projects in both GCSE options to maximise engagement.
Cross Curricular & Wider Experiences
To further develop the Art curriculum, we seek to develop in our students a love and passion for Art that enables them to connect spiritually, emotionally and culturally with the world we live in. We believe that by providing key creative opportunities for students in the curriculum and in our extra-curricular offer, it will expose students to a variety of different opportunities that will allow them to explore and express themselves through a range of different mediums.
The Art and Design, Performing Arts and PE departments were lucky enough to be one of the eight only Yorkshire schools chosen to work collaboratively with a four-year cross curricular project funded by Burberry. Burberry aims to use the Arts to enhance educational experience and outcomes for students. This programme allows our students to work with four creative partners; The Hepworth Gallery; Leeds Playhouse, Leeds Young Film and Northern Ballet. This year’s inspired programme and has had weekly residence projects in the academy, bringing in a range of specialists artists from the Hepworth Gallery and this has seen students engaging with printmaking and 3D sculptures. Last year, students worked with Northern Ballet and engaged with not only dance activities, but stage set production. The full culmination of work was hosted at Leeds City Museum with a performance across the genres of the Arts, as well as exhibitions of the work produced by our students. Students are encouraged to develop their literacy and oracy through discussion and debate as part of these experiences. We have strong links with Leeds Arts University who, in the holidays and after school, offer free Art courses for our students to attend. This opportunity increases knowledge of the different creative careers and what life is like as a student at a specialist Arts university. The department offers after school Art clubs and particularly encourages KS4 Art students to attend so that they can work on their personal projects.
Curriculum Journey - Key Stage 3
Art and Design Curriculum Journey - Key Stage 3