Art and Design
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Intent
Throughout our Art curriculum, children at Langrish gain a wealth of experiences by using a variety of different mediums, such as drawing and painting. Within each unit, children build on prior knowledge; develop control and mastery of art techniques; reflect on their own progression and explore a variety of great artists and designers and their place in history and culture.
During their time at Langrish, all children develop their competence in art through experience of using mixed media. For example, clay work, collage, digital media and sculpture. This provides them with skills that are transferable to other subject areas. For example, observational skills when drawing can be applied when drawing scientifically. A copy of our progression of skills document can be found at the bottom of this page.
All our units focus on a particular artist or artists and children start by discussing and evaluating their work with their peers. Children understand that artwork can result in differing points of view, and they are able to listen and respond to the comments of their classmates. Langrish children are encouraged to become critical thinkers and pose questions as to the intent and purpose of artists’ work. We aim to have a balance of both structured and open-ended tasks for children to complete. This is achieved by giving a specific stimulus or artist for children to base their work on, but also giving them freedom to create a piece of art that is unique.
Implementation
Sequence of learning:
Progression of skills:
Your journey as an artist:
Art in EYFS:
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, art and design techniques are regularly used across the curriculum to support a variety of experiences and develop a love for creativity. Children are encouraged to explore, use and refine a variety of artistic effects to express their ideas and feelings and return to and build on their previous learning, refining ideas and developing their ability to represent them. At Langrish, children are given opportunities to create collaboratively and use a range of resources and skills. They love sharing their creations and explaining the processes they have used! By the end of the year, all children will be confident to safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
SEND, Inclusion & Adaptation:
We work hard to ensure all of our subjects – including Art – are accessible to all.
We do this by:
- Reducing cognitive load by revisiting and reapplying previous knowledge and skills
- Reducing cognitive load by breaking down the learning into small steps and practising key skills in discrete lessons before applying them to a final piece
- Using adaptive equipment such as scissors adapted for left-handed users, sprung scissors for children who struggle with fine motor skills, and raised/tilted drawing boards
- Multisensory approaches to teaching, including practical demonstrations, photographs and videos of key skills, and hands-on activities
- Break-out areas and adult support for children who need to work in a quieter or less stimulating environment
- Giving opportunities for the children to work in pairs or small groups
- Motivating learners by ensuring projects include the freedom for children to be creative, and to express themselves and their own interests and ideas through their work
- Giving adult support where needed
- Scaffolding and modelling tasks and activities
Impact
Pupil Voice April 2025:
Art Ambassadors visit Bedales 2025
The Art Ambassadors were invited back to Bedales this year to take part in activities based around the artist William Morris. They made a rocking bird out of wood - representative of the 'strawberry-themed bird' from his artwork. They used hand saws and jigsaws, then sanded their work down to complete it. In the textiles room, they created a landscape from different materials, layered it, or cut up different pieces to create their final piece.
KS1 and KS2 Art Club 2025
Art clubs ran during Spring 2, exploring mindfulness through art. Children used a variety of mediums to create artwork, whilst enjoying a calm and relaxing atmosphere.
Pictures coming soon...
Mindfulness and PSD in Art 
As part of our school development plan, we have focused this year on mental health. All children are encouraged to use art as a way of expressing their feelings and regulating their emotions. In the Spring term, our KS1 and KS2 art clubs incorporated mindfulness through art, for children who particularly enjoy art as an outlet or hobby. In Years 3 and 5, children use positive affirmation journals to write down positive words, feelings and quotes, as well as using this time for doodling thoughts and feelings.
Art across the curriculum
The importance of art to express ideas and feelings is encouraged across the curriculum at Langrish. Children use art in World Faith and Philosophy, to express key concepts and ideas.
Take One Picture Week 2025
This year, for Take One Picture Week, we decided to explore eras of art that we don't currently study at Langrish. By exploring these early eras, we were able to develop a greater understanding of where art started, and the techniques used to inspire our modern and contemporary artists. Each class has a different era and will be populating our timeline in school to show the changes over time, both in Britain and around the world.
KS2 pupil voice March 2024:
Pupil voice October 2022:
Take One Picture Week 2024
This year, Take One Picture Week linked to our new learning in classrooms about the elements of art. Each class chose an element, with the support of the art ambassadors, that they would create artwork based around. Below, you can see each plan for the artwork across the week and our process of creating! We finished the week with a whole school art gallery, where we were able to celebrate everybody's final pieces, sharing our ideas and discussing our experiences.
Our whole school art gallery
Art Ambassadors visit Bedales
In February, our Art Ambassadors and some talented artists from Years 5 and 6 were invited to an art workshop at Bedales School. This included developing skills with a variety of media, such as charcoal and clay. The Year 5 and 6 art curriculum looks closely at mastery of techniques, working from a variety of sources and experimenting and modifying their own work to create a successful final piece.
During the morning, there was opportunity to discuss with art teachers about their specialist materials and learn how to use them effectively to achieve a desired outcome. The children were also shown a video of Michael Landy, a useful artist study, to support their awareness of composition, scale and proportion.
Art Club 2023
Year 3 and 4:
To support our Art curriculum, we have been running an additional Art Club after school. The sessions have focused on experimenting with different effects and textures (Y3 NC) and showing increasing independence and creativity with artistic processes (Y4 NC). Most importantly, they have allowed Year 3 and 4 pupils to explore their artistic understanding and techniques to keep practising and honing developing skills.
Take One Picture Week 2023
Every year we take part in 'Take One Picture Week' run by the National Gallery. This year we focused on the painting Surprised! by Henri Rousseau. The Arts Council worked with their classes to come up with a range of skills, linked to the National Curriculum, that they wanted to explore.
On the final day, we joined together in houses to create a STEM inspired project based on the painting. Through this creative and practical activity, all children gained the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in the process of designing and making. By selecting appropriate tools, each house was able to create completely unique designs. There was then opportunity to evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work through a whole school tour of the 3D art.
Climate Unity Project 2022
At Langrish, we love taking part in wider community projects. This year, Year 5 have taken part in the evolution of this project: Climate Unity. Their first piece of artwork has been delivered to Calshot Activities Centre and will be on show until October 2022. One side of the piece represents the world the younger generation will live in if we don't do anything about climate change; the other, 'good' side, represents the world Year 5 want when they grow up!
Alongside the pupils becoming true advocates for climate unity and preservation, they supported their art and design skills through mastery of techniques by using a range of materials for sculpture and painting.
Climate Crisis Project 2021
In 2021 Years 3 & 4 took part in the Climate Crisis Project run by Hampshire County Council and created an art installation, alongside other schools in Hampshire, to raise awareness about climate change and environmental issues. The piece was called 'Our Climate Crisis Forest'. The children showed that they could work confidently with a range of scales and experiment with different textures and techniques. They had such a sense of pride in our totem poles, which were even featured on ITV News!
"We only used recycled materials that we bought in from home to create our totem pole to raise awareness of plastic pollution"
"I liked how much effort we put into our project, we kept coming back to it and making improvements"
David Shepherd Global Canvas international art competition 
We have also taken part in the David Shepherd Global Canvas international art competition. This gave our KS2 children the opportunity to find out about endangered species, their habitats and threats they face. This also allowed the children to explore different media (Y3 NC), make and match colours with accuracy (Y4 NC), describe varied techniques (Y5 NC) and alter and modify their work (Y6 NC) to express themselves and a researched topic through artistic creativity.
We won Michael O'Mara Books Personal Choice Award too!
