Art and Design

Teaching children art and design can help them to express how they see the world around them and to communicate how they feel using different materials, patterns and textures. These lessons feed their imagination and creativity and they learn how art, craft and design can enrich their lives.

Children are taught to:

• Experiment with different materials, tools and techniques, such as printmaking, painting and modelling clay.
• Work with colour, texture and pattern, shape, form and space, tone and line.
• Explore and develop their ideas by recording what they imagine or see, and by asking and answering questions about it.
• Find out about similarities and differences in the work of artists, designers and craftspeople in different times and cultures.
• Review their own and others' work, discussing what they think and feel about it.

Learning methods include:

• Working on their own or with others.
• Using a range of starting points, such as natural and made objects, their own experiences or the local environment.
• Looking at and using a range of work, such as visits to galleries, art books or the Internet.

At the end of Key Stage 1 (age 7), most children are able to:

• Experiment with a variety of materials, tools and techniques.
• Eexplore and express ideas in colour, shape, form and space.
• Comment on differences in others' work, and suggest ways of improving their own work.