Art and Design Technology Curriculum
Art at Highwood inspires children to discover an exciting range of movements, artists and techniques and encourages them to learn and develop key skills, developing a wealth of knowledge, whilst simultaneously applying their own creativity and passions to replicate and create pieces of artwork. Children will be taught ways to generate ideas, including observation, collaboration and research. They learn to evaluate famous artwork and artwork created at Highwood.
Each year, they explore the different elements of art and experiment with a variety of techniques and materials, such as pencil, fabrics and malleable materials. They learn about the effects of using a particular technique through research and practical exploration, and implement this knowledge into their own pieces, using their perseverance to keep practising these techniques until they achieve the desired effects they wish to create as artists themselves. By years five and six, children are encouraged to experiment with and adapt certain techniques to create desired effects or potentially discover new ones.
Children are given opportunities to experiment with a variety of art forms, including, painting, ceramics and weaving, and by year six, children will have experienced different ways to generate ideas from existing artwork and use sketches, mood boards or annotations to record their thoughts and discoveries. This can be applied to further forms of art they may discover beyond Highwood.
In EYFS, Highwoodians learn about significant artists and begin to make comparisons. They choose to replicate these pieces or use them as an inspiration. Throughout Key Stage One, children discover more artists and movements, incorporating their knowledge of history and culture. Children continue this journey in Key Stage Two and explore particular artists and movements in greater detail.
Our young artists have produced stunning pieces of artwork including clay sculptures of flowers and minibeasts and detailed self-portraits. Children continue to practise their skills at home, creating pieces for art competitions and galleries, and have enjoyed learning within a masterclass from a published illustrator.
Design and technology at Highwood encourages children to discover and develop a range of techniques, materials and tools, to gain valuable knowledge and skills needed to design, make and evaluate a range of products.
Children will learn to use existing products through research and practical explorations of physical products and identify their functions. Through collaboration and critical thinking, children will devise a design criteria for their own version of these products considering important elements such as the materials needed and how it will be used. In this stage, children will also learn about significant designers, both modern designers and designers throughout history and what we can learn from their discoveries and their work. Children will also evaluate products based on their impact on our everyday lives and the world. They explore how products vary across the world and how they have changed over time, and why, making comparisons between these products.
Throughout their time at Highwood, children will have had opportunities to learn about, replicate, invent and evaluate in a variety of different forms including structures, textiles and moving mechanisms. They will develop many different techniques such as sewing, weaving, sawing, joining materials and facilitating movement in different ways. Children will explore food technology by learning about nutrition, recipes and preparation and cooking techniques, and then put these skills into practise in our food technology room. Children will be taught about the importance of safety and good hygiene when using these utensils and tools in other areas such as needles and junior hacksaws. The children have made a variety of exciting products at Highwood such as a model of a car or a beach hut, a luggage tag and models of bridges, which vary in complexity over the years.
Highwoodians are encouraged to use their creativity to bring their own ideas and experiences when designing and making the products, while at the same time, adhering to the design criteria. They use their skills of discernment to identify what is working and what isn’t working and use their knowledge from the previous lessons to make adaptions. Children gain essential knowledge and skills to both support them in practical tasks in everyday life throughout their childhood and adult life and provides them with the fundamentals to pursue an exciting career in the future, with possibilities such as an engineer, chef or fashion designer.
Below is an overview of our Art and Design Technology Curriculum.
art design and technology subject overview.pdf