Art

Computing

DT

English

French	Geography	History
Maths	Music	PE
PSHE	RE	Science

Intent

At Lethbridge Primary School, we want every pupil to enjoy art, develop their creativity and leave Year 6 with the confidence to select, combine and experiment with artistic techniques independently. Our curriculum is built around thre

e key disciplines: drawing, painting and sculpture. Through the Kapow Primary Art and Design Scheme, pupils revisit these areas throughout their time in school, developing knowledge, skills and artistic understanding through a carefully sequenced curriculum that fully covers the National Curriculum.

Alongside these core disciplines, pupils explore a range of media including collage, printing, textiles and digital art. In EYFS, children develop their creativity through a balance of continuous provision and adult-led learning. They explore a wide variety of materials, tools and techniques while also being introduced to significant artists and their work. Through practical, hands-on experiences inspired by artists such as Frida Kahlo, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Andy Goldsworthy and Claude Monet, children begin to understand that art can be created in many different ways. These early artist studies encourage curiosity, creativity and discussion, helping children to develop observational skills, artistic vocabulary and confidence in expressing their own ideas.

A key strength of the curriculum is its exposure to a diverse range of artists, designers, craftspeople and architects from different cultures, periods and backgrounds. Through studying both historical and contemporary figures, pupils learn to appreciate different perspectives, discuss and evaluate artwork, and understand the influence of art on society and everyday life.

Kapow also supports cultural capital through meaningful enrichment opportunities, including artist studies, collaborative projects, creative outcomes and opportunities to showcase artwork. These experiences help pupils make connections between art, culture, design, technology and future careers.

By the end of Year 6, pupils will have experienced a wide range of media, materials and techniques. They will be able to make informed artistic choices, apply and combine skills confidently, and take pride in creating and improving work through practice, knowledge and self-expression.

Our art units across the two-year cycle

Year groups are taught separately, but Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4, and Years 5 and 6 follow the same two-year curriculum cycle. Art and Design alternates with Design and Technology across the six terms, ensuring pupils experience a broad and balanced curriculum across all areas of art and design.

Phase	Cycle	Term and topic	Art unit	Skill area
EYFS	Every year	Term 1: Marvellous Me!	Self-portraits, colour mixing, inspired by Frida Kahlo	Painting and mixed media
EYFS	Every year	Term 4: Nature Detectives	Designing and making clay minibeasts	Sculpture and 3D
EYFS	Every year	Term 5: Dinosaurs	Drawing dinosaurs, comparing drawing tools	Drawing
Years 1 and 2	A	Term 1: Percy the Park Keeper	Understanding Tone and Texture	Drawing
Years 1 and 2	A	Term 4: Here comes the sun!	Colour Mixing	Painting and mixed media
Years 1 and 2	B	Term 1: Helpful Heroes	Map it out	Craft and design
Years 1 and 2	B	Term 3: Moats, Turrets and Drawbridges	Exploring Line and Shape	Drawing
Years 1 and 2	B	Term 4: Growing Dragons	Clay dragons	Sculpture and 3D
Years 3 and 4	A	Term 4: Rivers	Developing Drawing skills	Drawing
Years 3 and 4	A	Term 5: Vikings	Abstract shape	Sculpture and 3D
Years 3 and 4	A	Term 6: Desert	Light and dark	Painting and mixed media
Years 3 and 4	B	Term 3: Egyptians	Ancient Egyptian scrolls	Craft and design
Years 3 and 4	B	Term 4: Rainforests	Exploring tone, texture and proportion	Drawing
Years 3 and 4	B	Term 5: The Stone Age to the Iron Age	Exploring texture with paint and collage	Painting and mixed media
Years 5 and 6	A	Term 1: Ancient Greece	Making memories	Sculpture and 3D
Years 5 and 6	A	Term 2: Antarctica	World in Watercolour	Painting and mixed media
Years 5 and 6	A	Term 5: How did the Maya civilisation compare to Anglo Saxons?	Expressing Ideas	Drawing
Years 5 and 6	B	Term 2: Can I carry out an independent fieldwork enquiry?	Depth, emotion and movement	Drawing
Years 5 and 6	B	Term 3: What was life like in Tudor England?	Expressive Portraits	Painting and mixed media
Years 5 and 6	B	Term 6: Why does population change?	Photo opportunity	Craft and design

In EYFS, children create Arcimboldo-inspired collages, Frida Kahlo-inspired self-portraits, nature-based artwork inspired by Andy Goldsworthy and Monet-inspired work using oil pastels and wax crayons.

Because pupils in a cycle may meet a Year 2 unit before a Year 1 unit, teachers check the prior knowledge and skills each unit expects. Any gaps are addressed through carefully planned teaching and retrieval opportunities within lessons, ensuring progression is secured across each key stage.

How we teach art and design

Our teaching builds skills and knowledge step by step and gives pupils the confidence to experiment.

• Skills progression. The Kapow Primary Art and Design scheme provides a carefully sequenced progression of knowledge and skills, ensuring that pupils revisit and build upon prior learning as they move through the school.
  
  
• Sketchbooks. From Key Stage 1, pupils use sketchbooks to record ideas, research and thinking, experiment with techniques and plan their final pieces. Sketchbooks show each pupil's journey through a unit.
  
  
• Learning from artists. Each Kapow unit introduces pupils to artists, designers, craftspeople and architects from a wide range of cultures, backgrounds and historical periods. Pupils explore how and why art is created, analyse artistic techniques and use these as inspiration for their own work. In EYFS, children are introduced to artists including Frida Kahlo, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Andy Goldsworthy and Claude Monet, helping them explore portraiture, collage, natural sculpture and the use of colour and texture. As pupils move through the school, they encounter a diverse range of influential historical and contemporary artists, broadening their understanding of artistic expression across cultures and time periods. This wide exposure helps pupils understand the contribution of different individuals and communities to the world of art and design.
  
  
• Knowledge and skills together. Pupils learn how to use tools, materials and techniques, and the formal elements of art: line, shape, colour, tone, texture, pattern and form.
  
  
• Vocabulary. Specialist words from the Kapow vocabulary progression, such as tone, texture, composition, proportion and perspective, are taught explicitly and used when pupils talk about their own and others' work.
  
  
• Evaluating and improving. Pupils talk about what works in their own and others' work and how to improve it. They explain their opinions and give reasons for them.
  
  
• Making connections. Where appropriate, pupils make connections between their learning in art and other curriculum subjects. This helps them draw upon wider knowledge and experiences while maintaining art as a distinct discipline with its own knowledge, skills and vocabulary.

Art beyond the classroom

Our love of the arts reaches beyond lessons.

• After-school art and craft and dance clubs.
  
  
• Community projects linked to Old Town Gardens Enchanted Gardens Light Trail and Windows Wanderland.
  
  
• Year group productions and class assemblies that celebrate pupils' creative work through song, dance and drama.
  
  
• Art projects linked to the Blue Kite Academy Trust wider community.
  
  
• Opportunities inspired by the Kapow curriculum that extend learning beyond lessons, including collaborative projects, artist-inspired outcomes, displays and links between art and creative groups, helping pupils understand the role of art in the wider world.

Inclusion

Our art curriculum is an entitlement for every pupil, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND.

• Teachers adapt how content is taught, not what is taught, using modelling, step-by-step demonstrations, adapted tools and pre-taught vocabulary.
  
  
• Every pupil has access to a wide range of quality materials and to the diverse artists, designers and craftspeople featured throughout the Kapow curriculum, ensuring all children see a broad representation of people and cultures within the creative arts.
  
  
• Success is judged on each pupil's progress and effort, so every pupil can produce work they are proud of and which is celebrated equally.
  
  
• Additional adults may help pupils become more independent, so every pupil still benefits from the class teacher's teaching.

Assessment and impact

We measure impact by what pupils know, can do and choose to do.

• During lessons: Teachers watch, question and give feedback as pupils work, and adjust teaching straight away.
  
  
• Sketchbooks and final pieces: These show how pupils' skills, knowledge and creativity develop within a unit and over time, demonstrating progress through the curriculum and increasing independence as artists.
  
  
• Pupil voice: Pupils talk about the artists they have studied, the techniques they have used and the reasons for their opinions.
  
  
• Subject leadership: The Art Coordinators look at sketchbooks and final pieces, visit lessons and use what they find to refine the curriculum and support staff.

By the end of Year 6, pupils show confidence in drawing, painting and sculpture and have experienced collage, printing, textiles and digital media. They will have encountered a diverse range of artists, designers, craftspeople and architects from different cultures and periods, developing an appreciation of the richness of artistic expression across the world. Pupils will gain increasing confidence to explain their own opinions about art using a wider range of appropriate vocabulary, evaluate and refine their work, and select and combine techniques to create original outcomes, with increasing confidence. They will leave Lethbridge with a good understanding of the creative process, a rich cultural awareness and the confidence to participate in the arts beyond primary school.