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The Art Department of Queen Katharine Academy is dedicated to nurturing critical thinking and visual literacy through an engaging and supportive studio environment. Our curriculum is designed to foster independence through differentiated and self-directed work. We develop a lifelong aptitude and desire to learn, explore, create and invent. We encourage students to experiment, persevere and arrive at their own unique solution while promoting skill building, discovery, and innovation. Incorporating art history and contemporary art into the curriculum exposes students to global awareness and viewpoints other than their own. Working in a collaborative peer-learning environment, students develop creative problem solving skills, self-expression, and visual literacy. We help students to dream that they are capable and believe that we as a department will nurture their skills and together that students will achieve their fullest potential.
 

Welcome to the Queen Katharine Academy Art Department.

As you can see from our vision and mission statement our students and their success is at the heart of what we do.

A successful art department is measured by the success of its student’s creativity. Our core purpose is for more of our students to dream and believe that they can fulfil their potential

Teaching and Learning:

We are committed to developing the quality of our teaching and learning as our core purpose. We will be a source for the promotion of inspirational teaching, creativity, and high-level thinking.

As teachers we will raise standards, expectations, achievement, and aspiration among our students by:

  • Offering full access to an exciting, challenging, and relevant curriculum that will prepare our students for the rigours and demands of the new GCSE course and specification.
  • Challenging and supporting all students to enable them to progress and reach their full potential.
  • Structure and plan our curriculum, resources, and lessons to foster fluency, resilience, mastery, self-confidence, reasoning, and creative problem solving. 
  • To allow opportunities for our students to become independent and lifelong learners and have an appreciation for art.

 

Introduction

The department consists of 5 full time and all with different areas of expertise. We offer a broad approach to art and craft, having expertise in printmaking, drawing and painting. Many students continue with Art to degree level with recent students gaining places at Norwich School of Art.

Art is all about being creative. The department aims to make students more aware of the world around them, both visually and morally.   Students are encouraged to be active in decision making and engage in their work more, both visually and emotionally.

Key Stage Three

Outlined below ae the range of topics covered in Art in years 7 to 9

 

What new knowledge or skills are students taught?
Term Year 7 (sweets) Year 8 (animals in nature) Year 9 (Surfaces and impressionism)

Autumn Approximately 6 lessons

  • Drawing what you see, not what you think you see. Emphasis on initial primary source drawing and mark making.
  • Exploring the characteristics of drawing materials and evaluate the strengths and limitations of media. Exploring and identifying The Basic Elements of Art
  • Example contextual links: Nastasha Clutterbuck and Wayne Thiebaud
  • Increased diversity in visual recording through drawing. Moving beyond the Basic Elements to apply the Formal Elements, in particular texture and pattern through mark-making.
  • Depicting animal forms in a range of media; understanding suitability of media, techniques, and processes.
  • Example contextual links: Helen Cowcher
  • Understand more complex themes connected with composition and painting still life works of art in the style of Cezanne.
  • Improved accuracy in observational drawing. Applying scale, proportion, measured distances, and scaffolding.
  • Building proficiency in a combination of dry and wet media, exploration of painting techniques.

Spring Approximately 6 lessons

  • Develop visual language by combining the Basic Elements, taking creative risks with experimental use of media.
  • Explore colour theory and introduction to painting with watercolours.
  • Express personal, informed judgements on artist's work. Understand genre and themes to artwork.
  • Contextual examples: Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol, Sarah Graham
  • Refine drawing skills, combining the Formal Elements
  • and materials with independence. Making
  • independent choices.
  • the properties of painting and
  • colour in a range of media.
  • Understand context of an artwork and interpreting
  • visual language.
  • Refining practical skills in a range of materials, techniques, and processes to show increased mastery.
  • Exploring more complex themes connected to the artists of study; analysis, comparison, and genuine discovery.
  • Understanding the Formal Elements and visual dynamics of their own and other artworks.

Summer Approximately 6 lessons

  • Refine skills to show growing control. Consolidation of ideas; Show development and produce an outcome.
  • Take inspiration from an artist’s materials, techniques and or processes.
  • Critical review
  • Refine skills to show areas of mastery.
  • Consolidation of ideas; Show development and produce an outcome.
  • Take inspiration from an artist’s context, materials, techniques and or processes.
  • Critical review.
  • Refine skills to show mastery and proficiency.
  • Consolidation of ideas; Show development and produce a personal outcome with meaning.
  • Take inspiration from an artist’s context, materials, techniques and or processes.
  • Critical review.

Rationale for this sequencing

The Year Seven look at to encourage observational drawing and recording. We teach specific drawing skills using line and form

We introduce students to History of Art. We look at Mondrian ,Monet,Picasso,Warhol to give the pupils a general understanding on colour theory and colour mixing. We work under the theme of sweets, we will investigate the work of influential artists e.g. Wayne Thiebaud, Sarah Graham. In the Summer term we look at masks from around the world and make a three-dimensional mask using Mod Roc.

The Year 8 project builds students’ confidence with visual recording from a broad range of natural forms and animals, both primary and secondary. Students refine fundamentals learnt in Year 7 to improve their practical skills as they develop their understanding beyond the Basic Elements to The Formal Elements of Art. Students to explore how art can have value, message and meaning beyond the aesthetic appeal whilst developing key art skills. Students look at abstract art and image development

The Year 9 project allows students to refine their visual recording for more considered, accurate, diverse, and complex drawing skills. · Such a broad theme promotes a much richer awareness of the diversity in the way objects are depicted in Art. Increased emphasis on combining media and techniques as they have built understanding of suitability.

 

Key Stage Four

Student can choose to study Art as a GCSE option.

GCSE Fine Art Eduqas)

 Exam Board Eduqas

The GCSE course is a demanding one as students must be able to work independently and make perceptive judgements about their work.  Being able to draw well is not enough as risks must be taken to develop work in an exciting way. The course involves two components; a coursework portfolio which accounts for 60% of their marks and a 10-hour examination which accounts for 40%.

The four major areas are: -

  • AO1 – develop ideas through investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and cultural understanding.
  • AO2 – Experiment and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques, and processes
  • AO3 - record ideas
  • AO4 – present a personal and meaningful response.

 

 

What do students do with this knowledge or these skills?

We equip our students with insightful, academic knowledge of context and visual language to inform their visual interpretation of the world around them. We aspire for our art students to develop into technically accomplished, skilled young artists to become part of and understand the narrative of Art. The curriculum is designed to allow critical review and refinement so that students can make progress in becoming intuitive, perceptive, and focused in their creative intentions. Students will find their voice to use their artwork to communicate powerful and inspired messages and meanings. Our KS4 (Key Stage 4) Art curriculum will prepare our students to be the creative leaders in whatever field they go into and be able to show real innovation and critical thinking.

 

How does the KS4 curriculum align to the National Curriculum?

The Department of Education sets out the GCSE subject content with which we are aligned by following the Eduquas Fine Art GCSE specification. Our chosen pathway of Fine Art may be defined as work developed primarily to communicate aesthetic, intellectual or purely conceptual ideas and meaning. Our students work on a body of practical research and development leading to the creation of a personal response relevant to our set theme through their Unit 1 personal portfolio (60%) and Unit 2 externally set exam (40%) Our curriculum aligns with the National Curriculum to provide students with opportunities to make a personal, artistic journey, processing initial ideas through visual and contextual research to a resolution to a theme.

 

What new knowledge or skills are students taught?
Term Year 10 Year 11

Autumn Approximately 6 lessons

Induction period: embed knowledge, understanding and skills

  • An initial focus on observation and visual recording through drawing; Critical and accurate as well as explorative and experimental.
  • Exploring and experimenting with drawing materials, printing processes and techniques.
  • Recording practical and written observations
  • Researching and investigating contextual sources
  • Painting induction: Properties of colour and light such as hue, tint, saturation, and tone.

Students continue working on Unit 1 personal portfolio to refine outcomes.

  • Undertake sustained development, review, and refinement of ideas
  • Demonstrate skilful use of the formal elements and visual dynamics.
  • Record evidence of their progress, in an on–going critical and analytical review
  • Respond to a theme, stimulus, or ideas
  • Make connections between their investigations and creative intentions
  • Realise intentions
  • Produce and present outcome(s).

Spring Approximately 6 lessons

Unit 1 Personal Portfolio: thematic response project on ‘natural forms'

  • Increased focus characteristics of media and materials such as wet and dry, malleable, resistant, and digital.
  • The effects and creative potential of combining and manipulating different two-dimensional and three-dimensional materials and media, the use of digital and/or non-digital applications.
  • Lino printing/etching
  • Composition.
  • Critical review
  • Critical and contextual knowledge and understanding. Students' development of knowledge and skills based on the 4 assessment objectives:
  • Developing and exploring ideas
  • Researching primary and contextual sources
  • Experimenting with media, materials, techniques, and processes
  • Presenting personal response(s)

Unit 2: Externally Set Assignment

  • Paper released 2 January
  • Preparatory period begins in January and students start work on their preparatory studies in response to the theme
  • Enrichment opportunity: gallery visit, workshop, or visit to a local area of interest to support students’ response to the theme
  • Students complete all preparatory studies before the start of the period of sustained focus
  • The 10-hour period of sustained focus during which students produce their final response(s) to the theme

Summer Approximately 6 lessons

Proposal for final personal practical work in a Mock Exam

  • Contextual connections
  • Media, materials, and techniques
  • Critical review
  • Sustained outcome
  • Refinement

Students complete the Externally Set Assignment Students finish their Personal Portfolio and select work for submission. During the 10–hour period of sustained focus students will produce their outcome(s) responding to the Externally Set Assignment theme, based on their preparatory studies.

Rationale for this sequencing

Students spend most of the Year 10 reinforcing knowledge and building skills in a range of Fine Art media, techniques, and processes. We place significant emphasis on exploring drawing as a way of visual thinking and understanding of what we see. Drawing is at the heart of expression in every medium and it establishes visual confidence and is therefore a fundamental in our induction and throughout. There is more time in the curriculum for genuine refinement through trial and error, development, and increased proficiency. Students build up a more informed and broader awareness of contextual influences to understand how Art shapes and informs our society today. Artists taught inform their development of practical skills and promote critical analysis of visual language. Once students are equipped with higher skills set and the ability to make judgements on suitability, they then can work more independently to the Unit 1 coursework theme to create their own personal portfolio of work for coursework. They create their own artwork to become part of the visual narrative of the world in which we live. They learn the power and significance of what their own work can communicate. The four Assessment Objectives are intended to be integrated to form a coherent personal and sustained artistic journey that illustrates the students’ research, reflections, ideas, planning and resolution in response to set theme(s). The Unit 2 Externally set exam response represents the culmination of the GCSE course. Delivery of this component is planned with appropriate guidance during the preparatory period, encouraging student independence in the development of ideas, intentions, and response(s)

 

 

Key Stage Five

AS/A2 Art (OCR)

The Art Department offers students the opportunity to study Fine Art at A-level.

At AS level students must also prepare for 100 % Coursework. At A2 students choose and develop a personal topic supported by a 3000-word written study: this accounts for 60% of their course. A 15-hour examination takes place in May, and this accounts for 40% of their final marks.

The courses build upon the work done in GCSE but at a much higher level. Students are expected to be self-motivated enough to work independently in the sixth form art studio during and after school. They must have an inquisitive mind and want to explore ideas and problems posed by the visual world around them.

The assessment criteria are based on: -

  • Develop – Convincingly communicate evidence of an inventive development of ideas through investigations; perceptively analyse objects, images, and artefacts. Demonstrate evidence of a mature understanding of purpose, meanings, and their related context. Quality of language communicates ideas and development with perceptive analysis.
  • Experiment – Communicates evidence of an inventive exploration of the use of materials, processes, techniques, and resources.  Convincingly selects and demonstrates a mature understanding of reviewing and refining ideas, successfully identifying and interpreting relationships.
  • Record – Perceptively records and analyses images, objects, and artefacts. Shows evidence of a mature understanding of intentioned, meanings and their related contexts. The quality of language aids recording and process with mature structure.
  • Present – Presents evidence of a personal, creative, mature engaged and informed response realising intentions.

 

 

Staffing

Mrs S Erwin (Head of Creative Arts)  Sara.Erwin@qka.education
Mrs J Hamaali (Deputy of Creative Arts)  Joanna.Hamaali@qka.education

Ms H Collins  Heather.Collins@qka.education
Miss A Serghiou  Alexia.Serghiou@qka.education
Miss M Bradley  Maigon.Bradley@qka.education
Ms A Howard  Amanda.Howard@qka.education
Mrs C Holland  Carol.Holland@qka.education