At Gedney Church End Primary Academy, we believe that Art gives children a powerful way to explore, understand and respond to the world around them. It provides opportunities for children to express their ideas, experiences and imagination while developing an appreciation of art as an important part of culture, history and identity. We want every child to see themselves as an artist and to develop the confidence, creativity and curiosity to explore their own ideas.

Our Art curriculum is carefully planned so that children develop their knowledge and skills progressively from EYFS to Year 6. Children experience a broad range of artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, collage, textiles, sculpture and 3D work, printing and digital media. As they move through the academy, they revisit these disciplines in increasingly sophisticated ways, developing greater control, independence and intentionality in their use of different materials, tools and techniques. 

Children are explicitly taught the knowledge, techniques and vocabulary they need to develop as artists. They explore important elements including line, shape, form, colour, tone, texture, pattern and composition and learn how these can be deliberately combined to communicate ideas and create different effects. Children are encouraged to experiment, make choices, refine techniques and evaluate their work, becoming increasingly confident in explaining the decisions they make as artists.

Our curriculum enables children to encounter artists, artistic traditions and styles from different periods, cultures and contexts. Children consider how artists communicate ideas and how art can reflect the society, history and culture in which it was created. Where meaningful, Art makes purposeful connections with other areas of the curriculum. For example, children create Roman-inspired mosaics and explore Maya masks in LKS2, while UKS2 experiences include William Morris-inspired printmaking, Anglo-Saxon textiles, artwork inspired by the Second World War and landscape art connected with rivers and mountains. These connections deepen children's understanding while ensuring that the focus remains on developing distinctive artistic knowledge and skills.

Artistic development begins in EYFS, where children are encouraged to explore colour, texture, pattern, shape and form through purposeful opportunities to draw, paint, print, model and create. As children progress through KS1 and KS2, these early experiences are built upon systematically. They encounter increasingly complex techniques and are expected to make more deliberate choices about their materials and methods, refine their work and evaluate the effectiveness of their artistic decisions.

Our SPARK values are reflected strongly within Art. Children develop the Self-belief to express their own ideas, the Perseverance to practise, refine and improve, and the Aspiration to produce work of which they are proud. Through encountering the work and perspectives of others, they also develop Respect and Kindness, recognising that art provides many different and equally valuable ways for people to express their experiences, identities and ideas.

Ultimately, we want children to leave Gedney Church End with the knowledge, skills and confidence to create art with increasing independence and purpose. We want them to be curious about art, appreciate the work of others, make thoughtful creative choices and recognise that there is rarely only one way to respond creatively to an idea.