Art & Design Technology

Art & Design Technology Curriculum
Art & Design Technology Curriculum Overview 2025 – 2026	Download

Art :

Intent:

At The Federation of Longhorsley St Helens CofE First School and Whalton CofE Primary School, our Art curriculum is designed to foster creativity, technical mastery, and personal expression in every pupil. We place a strong emphasis on hands-on exploration in the Early Years, where children investigate a range of materials and processes to build confidence and curiosity.

Our primary focus is on drawing, painting, and sculpture, ensuring that children develop a secure understanding and strong skills in these core disciplines. By mastering these key areas, pupils gain the confidence and capability to explore other media and mixed techniques with purpose and control. Learning is progressive and aligned with the National Curriculum across Key Stages 1 and 2.

Through our curriculum, pupils will:

• Develop strong technical skills in drawing, painting, and sculpture to express ideas, observations, and imagination.
  
• Take creative risks, experiment with materials, and refine techniques to communicate meaning, mood, and narrative.
  
• Build knowledge of artists, artistic movements, and cultural contexts to inform and inspire their work.
  
• Engage annually in Spirited Arts, creating artworks linked to spirituality, beliefs, and personal reflection.
  
• Reflect on their own and others’ work using appropriate artistic vocabulary to improve skills and compositions.
  

Our curriculum ensures clear progression from Early Years exploration of mark-making, colour, and 3D forms to lower Key Stage 2, where pupils create increasingly sophisticated artworks. Key artists are studied across year groups, representing a range of cultures, time periods, and perspectives, and skills are applied across the wider curriculum, including Religious Education and History. Through this approach, pupils develop the confidence to express themselves creatively both within and beyond the classroom.

Implementation:

Our Art curriculum is delivered through a structured five-step approach in every unit, with deliberate emphasis on drawing, painting, and sculpture:

1. Learning About Artists and Analysing Work:
   Pupils study a range of artists, focusing on techniques, use of media, and thematic content. Spirited Arts projects highlight how artists convey spiritual, personal, or cultural messages. Analysis informs pupils’ technical and creative decisions.
   
2. Drawing and Observation:
   Drawing underpins all our work. Pupils develop observational skills, proportion, perspective, and mark-making, using these techniques to plan and inform painting and sculpture. Sketchbooks are central for idea generation and experimentation.
   
3. Exploring and Experimenting with Materials:
   Pupils investigate the properties of media, tools, and techniques, focusing on how these can be used in drawing, painting, and sculpture. High-quality teacher modelling demonstrates methods, scaffolds skill development, and encourages experimentation and problem-solving.
   
4. Idea Generation and Development:
   Children develop personal and imaginative ideas, including for Spirited Arts projects. Sketchbooks, discussion, and teacher guidance support refinement of ideas, ensuring that concept, technique, and expression are aligned.
   
5. Making:
   Pupils apply their skills in drawing, painting, and sculpture to produce purposeful, high-quality outcomes. Creative decisions are supported through modelling, scaffolding, and critique. While drawing, painting, and sculpture remain central, other media may be incorporated to enhance expression or thematic effect.

Impact:

Assessment in Art is carefully structured to ensure that pupils’ progress is monitored, misconceptions are addressed, and future planning is informed. Assessment takes place in the penultimate week of each unit, allowing teachers to provide targeted support and make refinements during the final week.

Pupils are assessed across three key areas:

1. Skills – Practical mastery in drawing, painting, and sculpture:
   
   • Pupils develop and record ideas in sketchbooks, explore textures, experiment with mark-making, and apply techniques with control and precision.
     
   • Assessment uses a “What I think / What my teacher thinks” tick-box system, enabling pupils to reflect on their own skills while teachers provide expert evaluation.
     
   • Example criteria: observational drawing, proportion, mark-making, material selection, and application of techniques in a final piece.
     
2. Creativity – Originality, problem-solving, and personal expression:
   
   • Pupils are evaluated on their imaginative responses to themes, including spiritual, cultural, or personal ideas.
     
   • Teachers look at how pupils generate ideas, experiment with materials, combine techniques, and communicate meaning through their work.
     
3. Theoretical Knowledge – Understanding of artists, techniques, formal elements, and context:
   
   • Pupils complete knowledge-based assessments using targeted questions on key vocabulary and concepts (e.g., texture, shading, symbol, composition, perspective, mark-making).
     
   • Pupils reflect on artworks, explain their choices, and demonstrate understanding of the historical, cultural, or spiritual context of art.
     
   • Example questions:
     
     • “What do you notice about the use of texture in this artwork?”
       
     • “What story does your piece tell?”
       
     • “How does this artist’s work reflect their cultural background or significance?”
       
     • “How did your choice of materials create the intended effect?”
       

The impact of our curriculum is demonstrated in:

• Technical Mastery: Pupils gain increasing control, confidence, and sophistication in drawing, painting, and sculpture, enabling them to produce high-quality work across media.
  
• Creative Expression: Pupils create original, meaningful artwork that communicates ideas, emotions, and spiritual or cultural themes.
  
• Knowledge and Understanding: Pupils can analyse techniques, discuss artists and movements, and reflect critically on their own and peers’ work.
  
• Spiritual and Cultural Awareness: Spirited Arts projects offer opportunities for personal reflection, empathy, and expression.
  
• Progression: From Early Years to Year 4 pupils build independence, technical skill, and creativity, achieving mastery in the core disciplines of drawing, painting, and sculpture.
  

This structured approach ensures that pupils leave The Federation of Longhorsley St Helens CofE First School and Whalton CofE Primary School as confident, reflective, and skilled artists, able to communicate ideas, analyse art thoughtfully, and respond creatively in personal, cultural, and spiritual contexts.

Supporting Learners in Art

We believe that every child is entitled to a high-quality Art education tailored to their individual needs, supporting them to achieve ambitious goals and reach their full potential. Our approach ensures that all pupils can explore creativity, develop technical skills, and express ideas confidently.

How we support learners:

• High-quality teacher modelling: Teachers demonstrate techniques, use of materials, and artistic processes step-by-step, showing how to explore texture, form, colour, and composition effectively. Modelling includes thinking aloud to make decision-making and problem-solving visible.
  
• Scaffolded skill development: Lessons are carefully structured to break down complex tasks into manageable steps, enabling learners to gradually build confidence and competence in a wide range of media, from drawing and painting to sculpture and printmaking.
  
• Practical, hands-on learning: Pupils are given opportunities to experiment and explore materials in a safe, supportive environment, allowing them to develop their technical skills and personal style.
  
• Variety in recording and creating work: Children can express their ideas using different approaches, including sketchbooks, digital media, models, and final artworks, allowing for multiple modes of expression and accessibility.
  
• Pre-teaching and reinforcement of vocabulary: Key Art terms, formal elements, and techniques are introduced before practical activities, ensuring pupils can describe, evaluate, and reflect on their work effectively.
  
• Use of visual, auditory, and tactile prompts: Resources such as diagrams, exemplar artworks, video demonstrations, and tactile materials support learners with different needs and learning styles.
  
• Peer and adult support: Teachers and teaching assistants provide timely guidance and encouragement, modelling techniques, offering feedback, and facilitating collaboration and discussion among pupils.
  
• Reflection and self-assessment: Children are encouraged to evaluate their own work, consider improvements, and reflect on how their artistic choices communicate meaning, building confidence and self-awareness.
  

Through this comprehensive support system, pupils of all abilities can access the Art curriculum fully, make meaningful progress in skills, creativity, and knowledge, and develop a lifelong appreciation for artistic expression.

Intent:

At The Federation of Longhorsley St Helens CofE First School and Whalton CofE Primary School, our Design and Technology curriculum is designed to ignite creativity, problem-solving, and innovation in all pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to design and make purposeful products for a range of contexts. We emphasise hands-on learning from the Early Years onwards, where children explore materials, tools, and simple processes to build strong foundations for later learning.

Aligned with the National Curriculum across Key Stages 1 and 2, our curriculum is structured to ensure clear progression in skills and knowledge. Three Design and Technology units are taught per year group every other half term, with learning consolidated through continuous provision in Early Years, practical problem-solving experiences such as Commando Joe’s, and meaningful cross-curricular links with subjects including Maths, Science, and Computing.

Our curriculum enables pupils to:

• Explore a broad range of materials, tools, techniques, and mechanisms safely and creatively, including food, textiles, structures, mechanical systems, and electrical systems.
  
• Develop analytical and reflective skills by evaluating existing products, testing prototypes, and refining designs to meet real-world needs.
  
• Apply learning in authentic contexts, considering sustainability, cultural influences, and technological innovation.
  
• Build resilience, independence, and collaboration through carefully scaffolded, practical projects.
  

From Early Years, where children design and make using recycled, malleable, and natural materials, to lower Key Stage 2, where pupils create more complex products such as programmable systems and cam-driven models, our curriculum ensures a progressive development of technical understanding. Through varied experiences including cooking, construction, electronics, and outdoor projects, pupils are prepared to confidently apply their Design and Technology skills beyond the classroom in everyday life and future pathways.

Implementation:

Our DT curriculum is delivered using a structured, five-step approach across all units, ensuring systematic progression of skills and knowledge:

1. Investigative and Evaluative Activities (IEAs):
   
   • Children investigate existing products relevant to the unit, exploring materials, joining and finishing techniques, and fastenings.
     
   • They ask and answer questions to understand design choices (e.g., materials, user, function).
     
   • Observations are recorded through drawings and annotated sketches, developing analytical and evaluative skills.
     
2. Focussed Tasks (FTs):
   
   • Teachers model key skills, including fabric selection, use of templates or paper patterns, marking, cutting, joining, and finishing techniques.
     
   • Children practise these skills in guided tasks, developing confidence and competence with tools and materials.
     
   • Advantages and disadvantages of different techniques are discussed to promote understanding of material properties and suitability.
     
3. Design:
   
   • Children generate ideas within an authentic context, considering purpose, user, materials, joins, and finishes.
     
   • Ideas are developed through talk, drawings, mock-ups, and ICT (e.g., for symmetry or pattern planning).
     
   • Children select one idea to develop fully, producing a detailed plan guided by design criteria.
     
4. Make:
   
   • Pupils follow their plans to create quality products, applying skills, knowledge, and techniques learned in IEAs and FTs.
     
   • Teachers scaffold the process to ensure safety, accuracy, and successful outcomes, while encouraging independence.
     
5. Evaluate:
   
   • Children assess their ongoing and final products against design criteria and intended purpose.
     
   • Reflection includes identifying strengths, considering improvements, and linking evaluation to user needs and functionality.
     

Progression Across Year Groups:

• Early Years: Explore materials, make simple moving structures, peel and chop fruit, discuss healthy choices, and share creations.
  
• Key Stage 1: Design and make simple vehicles, puppets, freestanding structures, and fruit salads, developing basic technical and practical skills.
  
• Lower Key Stage 2: Develop 3D textiles, shell structures, healthy soups, and moving storybooks, refining measurement, joining, mechanical, and introductory programmable skills.

Lessons are sequenced to build knowledge retention and vocabulary, with cross-curricular links to mathematics, science, computing, history, and art enriching the context and purpose of learning.

Impact:

The impact of our Design Technology curriculum is evident in pupils’ skills, knowledge, creativity, and confidence, measured through:

• Skills Assessment: Tick-box criteria allow pupils to evaluate their own progress (“what I think”) alongside teacher evaluation (“what my teacher thinks”), covering design, practical skills, and evaluation.
  
• Knowledge Assessment: Pupils complete targeted quizzes and reflection questions on key vocabulary, processes, safety, seasonal foods, and mechanisms.
  
• Demonstrable Progression: Children develop increasing independence, technical competence, and creative problem-solving skills from Early Years to Year 6.
  
• Practical Outcomes: Products demonstrate innovation, function, and purpose, from simple Early Years creations to complex automated and programmable systems in Upper Key Stage 2.
  
• Preparation for the Future: Pupils develop resilience, critical thinking, collaboration, and technical literacy, equipping them for further education and real-world challenges.
  

Through this approach, pupils leave The Federation of Longhorsley St Helens CofE First School and Whalton CofE Primary School confident, competent, and creative designers, ready to innovate and solve problems in the modern world.