At St Charles’ Catholic Academy, we want to encourage our pupils to develop a love of Art and design. We aim to inspire and develop their confidence to experiment and invent their own works of art.
To give pupils every opportunity to develop their ability, nurture their talent and interests, express their ideas and thoughts about the world, as well as learning about rich heritage and culture of the British Isles and beyond.
At St Charles’ Catholic Academy, we value Art and Design as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum.
Art and Design provides the children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas.
Our high-quality scheme of work educates, engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.
As children progress, they become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques. Skills are developed to help them evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.
Children learn about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms. We are very lucky to live in a city full of cultural opportunities; therefore, we want our children to make long-lasting memories by having cultural trips and experiences around our creative city.
At St Charles’ Catholic Academy, we use AccessArt scheme of work which enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets in the National curriculum and the aims also align with those in the National curriculum.
The teaching and implementation of the Art and design Curriculum at St Charles’ Catholic Academy is based on the National Curriculum and supported by AccessArt Scheme of work, ensuring a well-structured approach to this creative subject. The scheme ensures progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills.
Our scheme of work is designed with five strands that run throughout.
These are:
These strands are revisited in every unit and key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. There are Three topics throughout the year which are revisited in every year group from year 1 – 6 (Drawing, Colour and surface, structure and 3D,).
Our Art: Progression of Knowledge & Skills shows the skills that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.
The Art-Medium Term Plan shows when each unit is taught in each year group and that meaningful cross curricular links are made across subjects when and wherever possible
Lessons are always practical in nature and encourage experimental and exploratory learning with Key stage 1 and 2 pupils using sketchbooks to document their ideas. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required.
Creativity and independent outcomes are robustly embedded into our units, supporting students in learning how to make their own creative choices and decisions, so that their art outcomes, whilst still being knowledge-rich, are unique to the pupil and personal.
St Charles’ Catholic Academy understands that not every teacher feels confident delivering the Art and design curriculum and every effort has been made to ensure that they feel supported by the Art and design subject lead and by the use of Accessart’s Art and design scheme of work to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensures pupils’ progression.
Staff are encouraged to teach a weekly Art and design lesson. This helps ensure sufficient time is allocated to Art and design and that the subject matter can be revisited frequently, helping improve the rates of progression the children make. One Art and design topic per term is taught.
At St Charles’ Catholic Academy, the art and design curriculum is designed in such a way that children are involved in evaluating, dialogue and decision making about the quality of their outcomes and the improvements they need to make. By taking part in regular discussions and decision-making processes, children will not only know facts and key information about art, but they will be able to talk confidently about their own learning journey, have higher metacognitive skills and have a growing understanding of how to improve.
The impact of the Art and design scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives.
At the end of their learning journey at St Charles’ Catholic Academy, the implementation of the Art and design curriculum will equip pupils with a range of techniques and the confidence and creativity to form a strong foundation for their Art and design learning at key stage 3 and beyond.
The expected impact will be that children:
St Charles Catholic Academy is consulting on its proposed admissions arrangements for the next academic year. These will apply to children entering the school from September 2027 (applying in the applications window opening Autumn 2026). We value your views as parents, carers, and members of our community. Have your say and share your feedback.
