The intention for our curriculum is to provide a challenging and enjoyable experience, full of opportunity to explore new ideas and concepts, to inquisitively question the established conventions and seek out innovation, whilst also appreciating the rich cultural history of the Arts. We aim to embed our students with the necessary skills and knowledge to develop young people that are agile and adaptable in their working practices and ethics, disciplined and self-motivated to strive for the highest possible standards, and committed to their own learning and development as well as that of those around them.
By relentlessly focussing on these core aspects of Art, and allowing our students the time to be able to rationalise and practice what they have learned, we hope to achieve a thriving culture of inquisitive exploration which leads to rich and extensive ideas and immersion within the world of Art, with students that are enabled to produce the highest quality of outcome, but that also fully understand the context in which they have done so, and be able to relate their experiences not only to the modern world they live in, but also to the heritage and culture of the subject that has gone before.
Our curriculum is academic and ambitious:
At Whitelands we have the same high ambitions for all of our students, we therefore have embedded the SEN 6 repertoire of strategies into our curriculum design to ensure that any student with a low reading/numeracy age or has a mild learning difficulty can still access the challenging curriculum and succeed.
As such, Art at Whitelands will use a wide range of creative and practical opportunities to record ideas and expression to teach our students the knowledge, understanding and under-pinning skills that are vital for them to fully engage with rich world of Art. Students will be taught and encouraged to think critically and to extensively utilise research and exploration to create depth and variety in their artistic capabilities, while also incorporating an awareness of cultures and tradition.
Our curriculum is broad and enriching:
The curriculum in Art follows and extends past the National curriculum. For example; we study the work of a wide range of artists, movements and cultural art because we believe it is important to give our students a wholistic appreciation of Art, and not allow them focus solely on what appeals directly to them before having considered how their expression relates to others. Through the use of extra- curricular clubs, Art at Whitelands will be a subject that offers students the scope to explore their creativity beyond the framework of just lessons alone.
Our Art students will similarly be taught to rely heavily on the analysis of the work of past and present artists and designers across multiple movements, to develop and broaden their contextual understanding as a whole, while we also aim to provide opportunities embedded within the curriculum to visit external agencies and enter competitions.
Our curriculum promotes core literacy and is knowledge rich:
Students are introduced to a wide range of tier 3 vocabulary through the use of dual coding and use of success criteria within lesson modelling. Students are guided to utilise this vocabulary in their articulation of their work or peer feedback.
We believe that knowledge underpins the understanding of the skills taught in Art. Therefore, students are provided with knowledge organisers, DNAs and Home learning quizzes which re-visit the knowledge learnt in lessons with increased time intervals between the repetitions. Thus, supporting students in their retention and retrieval of what they have learnt.
Our curriculum is values-based:
We promote and discuss values within OuR TRAIT through each lesson to guide students how to become modern citizens. Citizens who understand how to tolerate, respect and even be inclusive and welcoming of other people’s ideas and creations, and that are culturally sensitive to the modern world they live in.