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 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 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 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.