Why we teach Art

At St Anne’s we believe that art plays a vital role in our everyday life. It fosters valuable, transferable skills that boost children’s successes in all areas of our school curriculum.  We aim to instil a love of art through enriching and exciting opportunities that unlock children’s creativity providing them with an avenue for self-expression. From the moment children begin their journey at St Anne’s, we seek to develop their confidence and ignite their curiosity, awe, wonder and imagination through the exploration and participation of exciting art experiences. Exploring art from around the world enhances our young artist’s awareness, appreciation and respect for the diverse and wonderful, creative world we live in.

The knowledge, skills and understanding children develop

Through our hands on, enquiry based curriculum, our children develop their skills and knowledge of techniques and media. As early as the foundation stage, children’s physical development and social skills are embedded through engaging, creative opportunities. Children are encouraged to be adventurous and resilient in their personal and collaborative creations. This in turn develops language skills, self-expression and the ability to communicate.

As children move into Key Stage 1, skills are built upon with children continuing to develop their fine motor skills, decision making and inventiveness.

Critical thinking skills are established, enabling children to form their own opinions about art whilst developing their language and expressing their feelings.  Children benefit from every opportunity taken to practise and apply their reading, writing and maths skills within the art curriculum.

The learning experience

Through memorable experiences and opportunities for creative collaboration, children are able to try out, experiment with and use a variety of techniques and media. Discrete art skills are practised and refined as part of the artistic process leading to children’s final artistic creations.  Our young, adventurous artists are equipped with the vocabulary and speaking and listening skills to reflect upon and review artwork. 

Our art curriculum enables our children to explore their identity, the community in which they live, the history and culture of their local area and the artwork of iconic artists both past and present.   Resilience, self-belief and creativity is inspired through rich and varied experiences from  designing and making hats, bridges and costumes to producing and exhibiting their own sculptures, paintings and photography.  We engage with local artists and take the children out into our local area to explore the exciting variety of art on our doorstep.