Key Stage 3: Art

Curriculum Intent

The teaching of Art and Design at Murray Park School is geared towards enabling each student to personally develop creative skills and to enhance their capabilities, through a variety of art based disciplines. Each project delivered at Key Stage 3 has exciting and motivating starting points. These have been designed to capture the students’ interests and provide them with a variety of visual material to incorporate into their work.

We always start our projects with observational drawing, where students are taught about shape, proportion and the use of tone. Tone is the process of adding shadows and highlights to create form within their drawings.

We use existing artists, designers and crafts people as inspiration for the further development of the students’ work.

The students will be given the opportunity to explore and experiment with a wide variety of artistic materials and processes; whilst learning how to develop and refine their ideas. They will then produce a personal and meaningful response to their project.

The students’ work is assessed using the following criteria; Research, Development and Refinement,  Recording and Drawing and Personal Response. Within each objective, the students are graded on a scale designed to reflect their progress over time. The grades are as follows; Emerging, Foundation, Developing, Secure and Mastery.

Reflecting the Murray Park PRIDE values, we want our students to grapple and experiment with materials and processes to foster ‘perseverance’; we want ‘independent’ and creative learners; who have the opportunity to follow their ‘dreams’ and use their ideas to produce high quality outcomes, showing ‘excellence’ in all they do.

We introduce students to new art forms, artists, designers, crafts people, new techniques and we also run trips (domestic and international) to broaden their horizons and experiences of the arts.

We aim to prepare students for the world of work and Post 16 opportunities by constantly referring to careers in the creative industries both locally, nationally and internationally and promoting creative Post 16 courses including ‘A’ Level and Level 3 BTEC creative courses.

Curriculum Overview

In KS3 Art, pupils are taught to:

  • develop their ideas through research and investigations;
  • study the work of existing artists and designers;
  • understand the techniques the artists employ;
  • be creative in the way they present their research;
  • develop a critical understanding of sources used;
  • analyse and evaluate their own work, and that of others, in order to strengthen the visual impact or applications of their work;
  • refine their work experimentation;
  • explore new materials, techniques and processes;
  • understand when it is best to employ a certain process;
  • experiment with materials to further develop their work;
  • increase their proficiency in the handling of different materials.

Pupils are taught how to:

  • record their ideas
  • record ideas through drawing;
  • use a sketch and creative imaginative backgrounds ;
  • draw in proportion and make use of tone and shadow;
  • understand the Formal Elements of art and the importance of Mark making;
  • use photography for recording;
  • annotate and analyse to further explain their thinking and intentions.
  • present a personal response;
  • competently present a personal response to a given starting point;
  • develop an understanding of the visual language.

Extra-curricular activities

We aim to supplement our broad curriculum with a range of extra-curricular activities to enrich the pupils’ experience and enjoyment of learning. Weekly after-school clubs and lunchtime clubs are available for students to attend. We run trips, both international and domestic. Previous trips include a day trip to Liverpool in support of our ‘Music’ project and an Arts Trip to New York City to visit the various museums and art galleries.

 

Useful links

https://www.studentartguide.com/featured