Year 7-9 Art
We believe that Art has an important role to play as part of a wide and varied curriculum that prepares students for life in and beyond Westfield School. In Art we aim to provide students with experiences in which they feel challenged and supported and aim for all students to leave lessons with a sense of pride and achievement.
Our focus at both Key Stages begins with high quality lessons which focus around developing a wide variety of techniques that will allow students to develop skills using a variety of mediums. Students will explore the use of Art history to inform and inspire the creative process. Techniques explored are observational drawings, colour work, painting and 3D practical skills. Students will be expected to develop written analysis techniques to understand how and why art looks the way it does. We also seek to offer students a variety of opportunities to extend their learning and achievement beyond the classroom. We have three main aims:
- To develop personal and transferable skills through creativity, problem solving, research and analysis.
- To develop a broad range of artistic skills and contextual understanding of different artist and art styles, allowing students a solid foundation to achieve highly at GCSE if they wish to study Art further.
- To explore a range of social, moral and cultural themes through art.
KS3 Programme of Study
In Year 7 students are baseline tested on their ability in the following areas: Research and Analysis, Skills and Techniques and Ideas and Creativity.
The projects taught in the Key Stage 3 curriculum are:
- Y7 - Insects project and African art.
- Y8 - Pencil observational study of a shoe, large scale oil pastel eye study and mixed media artist portrait study.
- Y9 - Issue based art pop art project, visual lyrics project and angels and gargoyles project.
Skills are then developed in the three areas:
- Research and analysis: In years 7-9 students develop their research and analysis skills through written and verbal analysis of their own work and the work of various artists.
- Skills and techniques: Students work independently in a range of materials including observational drawing, painting, sculpture and mixed media.
- Ideas and creativity: students are asked to combine their knowledge of the artist's work and display their own skills by producing a personal response to the different theme or topics.
Suggested Reading List
- http://primaryfacts.com/famous-artists/ - An educational website where you can research different artists
- www.redtedart.com - Kids Get Arty Exploring David Hockney and Photo Montage
- www.Pablopicasso.org - Fun facts about Picasso
- The Art Book for Children - Phaidon Editors: a book about the different movements in art aimed at younger readers.
- Tate Kids Modern Art Activity Books -Sharna Jackson and James Lambert: a book based around 10 contemporary major art works. Filled with activities, games and facts.