Art & Design

“Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once we grow up.” Pablo Picasso.

What is Art?

Art is an expression of creativity and imagination.

Art at Cockton Hill Junior School:

Art at CHJS focuses on inspiring children to develop their confidence when experimenting and inventing their own works of art. We aim for children to have every opportunity to develop their skills, nurture their talent and interests, express their ideas and thoughts about the world, as well as learning about art and artists across cultures and through history.

Across school, children will have the opportunity to generate ideas, utilise sketchbooks, include formal elements (line, shape, tone, texture, pattern, colour), expand their knowledge of different artists and evaluate and analyse pieces of work.

Units of work throughout school focus on: Drawing, Painting and Mixed Media, Sculpture and 3D and Craft and Design. Within these units of work, we want children to explore and experiment with their ideas and be able to discuss confidently about their own learning journey.

Here you will find our Art curriculum overview as well as unit overviews. These show the key knowledge and skills for each unit as well as some questions you can ask your child at home. Enrichment opportunities show how our curriculum is further enhanced.

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Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Our curriculum in action

Year 3 : Drawing - Growing Artists

In this unit of work, children learnt the four shading rules and how to create light and dark tones. They focused on using shapes, composition, a range of textures (frottage) and received guidance on how to apply tone with a degree of accuracy and skill. Their final piece of work incorporated all these skills into an abstract drawing of a flower.

Year 3 : Painting and mixed media - Prehistoric Painting

This unit explored prehistoric artwork where pupils explored how long ago these were produced and where they would have been discovered. They then begin a process to recreate this by experimenting with shapes for drawing, using charcoal and natural pigments to create a realistic effect and use scale to enlarge their image.

Year 3: Craft and Design - Ancient Egyptian Scrolls

Pupils applied the styles, patterns and techniques of Ancient Egyptian art through lessons that involved firstly exploring Egyptian artwork and paying attention to the style and characteristics, designing scrolls, making papyrus paper and creating contemporary responses using zine.

Year 4: Drawing - Power Prints

In this unit of work, children built on their skills of shading from Year 3 to create tone in order to create interesting patterns and contrast. They explored hatching and how to create drawings with accurate proportion and tone before creating their own mixed-media drawing. These skills then came together to create their own power print.

Year 4: Painting and Mixed Media - Light and Dark

Pupils learnt the difference between tint and shade and how this is applied to artwork to create three-dimensional paintings. Alongside this, pupils learnt about composition and proportion when recreating still-life paintings to create a final piece portraying their new-found skills. Year 4 also have the opportunity to explore artists' work in the Spanish Art Gallery and see for themselves tint, shading and proportion being used by artists.

Year 4: Sculpture and 3D - Mega Materials

This unit focused on different sculptures with a link to understanding what sculptures are and where you can find them in the North East (Angel of the North, Brick Train, Tommy and The Journey.) Firstly, pupils explored moving from 2D to 3D artwork. Then, they created their own soap sculpture using inspiration from Barbara Hepworth's artwork. Pupils then had the opportunity to create sculptures using wire and recycling influenced by other artists such as El Anatsui and Jaume Plensa.

Year 5: Drawing - I need space

In this unit, children focused on their understanding of retrofuturism and how to develop their skills to evaluate and create their own artwork around this idea. Children were encouraged to work independently to select materials and refine their ideas through various drawing activities including collagraph printmaking to create their own retrofuturism art.

Year 5: Painting and Mixed Media - Portraits

This unit offered pupils opportunities to develop skills in creating interesting portrait drawings using words, experimenting with materials and techniques, and constructing self-portraits that represent aspects of themselves. This encouraged thoughtful decisions in their artwork composition.

Year 5: Craft and Design - Architecture

This unit focused on architecture, where pupils learnt skills in observational drawing, printmaking, and building design. It encouraged children to explore architectural elements, analyse Hundertwasser's work, and create meaningful monuments, enhancing their understanding of composition, design, and art appreciation.

Year 6: Drawing - Make my voice heard

In this unit of work, children were encouraged to use a variety of different art styles such as chiaroscuro and evaluated how to demonstrate different effects with a variety of tools. Children explored how to create expressive and symbolic artwork throughout the unit to then showcase their individual self in their final piece.

Year 6: Painting and Mixed Media - Artist Study

This unit focused on understanding narratives and descriptive language in art, exploring meanings behind paintings, and developing personal interpretations and abstract art pieces based on selected artists such as David Hockney, John Singer Sergent, Fiona Rae and Lubaina Himid. Pupils then chose an artist to create their own final piece of artwork inspired by them.

Year 6: Sculpture and 3D - Making Memories

This unit taught pupils to explore the concept of 'self' and create expressive sculptures and reflect on artistic decisions. Children learnt to represent memories through art, using various materials and techniques and developed skills in planning, creating, and evaluating 3D sculptures.