Art and Design

The art curriculum throughout our school provides children with an exciting range of opportunities to be creative and encourages self-expression. At Chester-le-Street CE Primary School, we don’t just teach drawing and painting skills, we promote children to communicate visually how they see and experience the world – from Early years to Year 6.

Every year group researches different artists, exploring and discussing their work, comparing their compositions and experimenting using a range of techniques and media. In Early Years these link with the Expressive Arts and Design curriculum, children are offered daily opportunities to be creative using a range of different media and craft materials to draw, paint and model with. This promotes children to use their imagination, raises self-confidence and has been linked with increased concentration and general well-being.

As children progress through school, they are provided with their own ‘Progression in Art’ sketch book, this travels with them to each new year group. Children apply previously taught techniques and skills to scaffold their approach to creating more complex and detailed compositions. Children are encouraged to evaluate their own work, as well as that of their peers and famous artists. Children enjoy reflecting on their previous work and can see their progression.

Art tasks are often cross-curricular, linked with a year group’s topic work – reinforcing children’s understanding and engagement with the subject and enabling them to explore in more depth.

We have some amazingly talented artists at Chester-le-Street CE Primary School and love to celebrate creativity and imagination by displaying children’s work around school. Our teaching of art and design embraces our core values, that every child should have the confidence to express themselves in a happy, caring and achieving environment.

We recognise that art also plays a pivotal role in supporting pupil well-being.

For many children it is their place to really thrive, shine and excel!