Giffard Park Primary School

Art and Design

At Giffard Park Primary School, we believe it is important to foster creativity and imagination in all our children. In Art and Design, we aim to provide experiences and skills in various aspects of art and design: painting, drawing, sculpture, printing, plus many more!  We aim to provide unique opportunities for our children that enable them to express their creativity in their own way. Over the year, we weave art and design into our project-based learning as well as our focused weeks.

Foundation/Year One

Foundation and Year One children study the work of many famous artists including Van Gogh, Picasso, Lowry, Goldsworthy and Arcimboldo. They begin to explore different genres of art and techniques used by artists throughout the world.

They focus on representing themselves through self-portraits, creating their own interpretations of artists work and exploring collage and patterns. Children begin to explore the mixing of primary colours to make secondary colours and document the process. They are introduced to still-life drawing, using careful observations of objects around them.

During the summer term, they travel through art to the African landscapes and explore colour and pattern through traditional African materials. Children design and create Masai headbands using a range of tools and explore seascapes through collage using tissue paper. Children also explore the works of Aboriginal artists and create their own paintings of their native animals using the dot technique.

Year Two

Throughout the year there are several links to different craft makers, designers and artists. They discover the works of Monet, Pollock and Turner and use these styles to create their own artwork. They also explore a range of artistic techniques using paints, colouring pencils and pastels. They begin to learn about shade and tone and explore the colour wheel. 

During the London topic the children are transported back in time and become architects. The children design and make their own Tudor houses. They use cardboard boxes, sugar paper, paint and glue to create them. They add finishing design features such as wooden beams, windows and doors. 

Upon returning to modern day Britain the children use clay to design and make their own famous London Landmark. They use clay tools to create lines and features on it. The children think carefully about the shape of each landmark and how they can use the tools to create it. They focus a lot on line and shape throughout the creative process. 

Year Three         

As we move into Key Stage Two, the children begin to explore the earliest signs of art, inspired by the Stone Age. This is by sketching prehistoric animals, creating cave paintings and silhouettes of famous Stone Age landmarks. Children use clay to create Bronze Age beakers using the coiling method and imprinting of natural resources to produce fossil inspired sculpture. Children immerse themselves in a topic day full of artistic opportunities where they learn how to carve soap arrow heads, finger paint with berries and construct biscuit henges.

They research and study an artist in detail and create a double page study about the artist’s life and works of art. The children then design and create their own Gaudi inspired mosaic collage of a gecko after learning about his famous lizard in Park Guell.

In the summer term, children explore colours, patterns and designs inspired by the Romans. They use research of Roman designs to decorate their chariots using paint. During the Roman Topic Day, children explore and research the designs of Roman coins to create them using clay and tools. Children incorporate their knowledge of emperors and Roman numerals and discuss the similarities with modern day coins.

Year Four

Our Art and Design curriculum lets Year Four show their creative side. They look at detailed images of dragon’s eyes and sketch designs with intricate detail of scales and the iris. They then use these as a guide to make dragon eye sculptures. Children finalise their pieces using metallic paint to create shine to the scales.

In spring, Year Four children delve into the post-impressionism art era and not only learn about Henri Rousseau’s ‘Tiger in a tropical storm’ but also investigate the era he lived in and compare his other pieces of work. Year Four also explore the work of artists around the world and focus on The Great Wave off Kanagawa woodblock print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai.

During the summer topic of Magic, children design and make a 3D sculpture of a golden snitch. They use cocktail sticks to help attach the delicate wings to the sphere, providing a stable and precise structure.  

Year Five

Much of Year Five’s art is linked to their topic work. They explore Ancient Egypt and look at Egyptian portraits. They also use their design skills to produce Egyptian amulets using inspiration from Egyptian symbols.

During the Natural Disasters topic, children explore the work by Jackson Pollock and his famous splatter technique. They then incorporate this into their Mount Vesuvius volcano painting.

When learning about the Victorians, children research and explore Victorian patterns as inspiration for their printing. Children use mono printing to create repeated patterns using compressed polystyrene and lino tiles. This progressive project exposes children to different printing styles and increased difficulty with techniques.

Year Six

In Year Six, the children can consolidate a range of skills that they have learnt across both Key Stages throughout a range of different topics and projects. They also look at the importance of different artists like Matisse and his influences on the world, comparing them to both ancient and modern similarities. During this unit, children experiment with collaging, scaling and shape with inspiration from the artist.

They take a big focus on Ancient Greek pottery in comparison to modern-day pottery, looking at its uses. They then designed and created their own clay pots inspired by their structure and use of colour.

When learning about the Tudors, the children also use clay to create three dimensional Tudor roses. They showed increased confidence when sculpting and joining the petals and had great skill during the decorating process with paint.