Artsmark Round Two!

Here we go again! After enjoying our Artsmark Silver Award status for the last two years, the time has come to begin the process of planning and striving for excellence within the Arts Curriculum at Leyland Methodist Schools all over again. In order to achieve the silver award last time, our fabulous team of staff and children had to show an external assessing body just how amazing we are at Leyland Methodist Schools at celebrating the Arts. Here are some of the things that Arts Council England had to say about us then:

"You have clearly demonstrated that you value each arts subject; that all teaching staff understand the ambitions and are engaged in developing them; and that you have clear schemes of work and programmes of study to show an increase of knowledge, skills and understanding for arts and cultural subjects, across all phases".

 "Arts Council England celebrates your ongoing commitment to arts and cultural education, and the opportunities emerging across your whole setting. Your children and young people are offered equal opportunity to participate in a broad range of arts and cultural experiences, and you recognise the importance of development opportunities for your staff that have tangible results in these areas. You understand the value of working with arts and cultural organisations and other settings, and are developing partnerships to enhance your provision. Your children and young people have an opportunity to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding of arts and culture, and you are working to instil confidence and build on the foundations of your provision".

We now look forward to beginning the journey again and maybe even going for gold this time! Watch this space!

The Intention

At Leyland Methodist Schools we have been proud to hold an Artsmark Silver Award and are now well on our way to applying for this prestigious award all over again. The award demonstrates our school’s ongoing commitment to providing a rich, creative Art curriculum that is tailored to the needs of our learners.

As the children at Leyland Methodist Schools journey through our Art Curriculum, they will acquire a rich knowledge of arts traditions, learning about a variety of different artists from all over the world and from all different time periods. The children will come to know for example, how and why people through history made their own paint, why frescoes were popular within Italian homes and how environments can be influenced and transformed by the work of artists like Antoni Gaudi and Anthony Gormley. Our children will learn the key vocabulary needed to help them to discuss their work with friends, including language related to drawing, painting, sculpture and print work.

Alongside the acquisition of core knowledge and vocabulary, our children will also develop and practice a whole range of fundamental art skills, enabling them to create high quality artwork with a range of materials and techniques, using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space.

At Leyland Methodist School, our Art curriculum fosters the spirit of exploration, encourages our children to strive for excellence within all aspects of the arts and celebrates all levels of success. 

Art in EYFS

At Leyland Methodist School we believe that a child’s artistic and cultural awareness begins in the early years. We provide regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. This enables our children to develop their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate in the arts through exploring colour, design, texture, form and function. Children are also encouraged to share their creations, explaining the processes they have used.

Key Learning in the EYFS Arts curriculum links to:

Aesthetic Awareness – showing awareness of their feelings linked to exploration of real objects, experiences, materials, artefacts and textures within their world, 

Observation – observing and noticing features and details within real objects, artefacts, materials, pictures, paintings and photographs they experience within their world. Talking about what they see, 

Communication – talking about what they are creating, explaining the processes, techniques and materials/media they have used including colours, patterns, shapes, textures, form.

Physical skill – manipulating, controlling and exploring a range of tools and equipment for different purposes.

Art processes and techniques – purposefully exploring different techniques within painting, drawing, collage and sculpture using a variety of media and materials.

And Evaluation – sharing and talking about their work/work of others, saying what they like and dislike and why, making suggestions about changes they could make or different tools or techniques they could have used.

Art and the National Curriculum

The National Curriculum Programme of Study provides the bedrock of our Art Curriculum at Leyland Methodist Schools and underpins all work that we do. It works on the premise that the key skills of drawing and painting are the foundations for all artwork and must be revisited, refreshed and developed regularly in order to achieve mastery. From these foundations, all other forms of artwork; sculpture, printing, batik, textiles, collage and digital art can then be explored from a strong creative starting point. 

Using the National Curriculum document as a baseline, we have also undertaken a thorough Curriculum Needs Analysis, studying the characteristics of our learners here in Leyland to ensure that our curriculum fulfils their requirements. We now have a suite of topics which offer diverse and motivating learning experiences in Art linked to Science, History, Geography and English. To complement this, we have also developed a detailed Progression Document that maps out the key skills in learning throughout all aspects of Art and shows what these skills look like at each level from Year 1 through to Year 6. This progression document provides clarity for both teachers and learners alike – it signals clearly what the expected level of progress looks like at each Key Stage and aids the assessment in what is a notoriously difficult subject to measure. 

Cultural Capital

At LMS we firmly believe that Art offers the perfect opportunity to develop our children’s cultural experiences. We therefore aim to provide a programme of enrichment opportunities each year to elevate our curriculum to outstanding 

levels. These opportunities have included gallery visits to various venues over recent years including exploring the Harris Museum and Gallery in Preston. Here, our children enjoyed a workshop delivered by a Fine Arts specialist and have had the opportunity to study and recreate the artwork exhibited as well as create their own with expert guidance. We have also visited the world renowned Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool where our children have been able to see first-hand the range and diversity of artwork by comparing Ancient Greek sculpture to contemporary modern art. These experiences provide vital opportunities for our learners to see and understand what excellence looks like and gives them something to strive for within their own learning journey. 

To compliment this, we also believe that inviting artists into school provides invaluable opportunities for children to meet, question and learn from professionals. It helps us as a school to consolidate the culture of ambition, showing our children what is possible. Local sculptor Steven Charnock has led full day workshops in 3D work using the mediums of clay, plaster of paris, wire and recycled materials and professional printer Alan Birch has focused his workshops on using ink to create images from the Arabian Nights. Both artists have then led staff training sessions to impart expert knowledge to further enrich the children’s learning experiences. 

Finally, we also recognise the importance of celebrating and showcasing the work of our developing artists here at Leyland Methodists and so we provide regular opportunities for exhibition throughout the year. At these Pop-Up Gallery events, parents are invited in to see their children’s work displayed alongside other year groups and learn about what their child has been studying in Art. Alongside this, we also exhibit annually at the South Ribble Museum in Leyland and at the Methodist Church Galleries held at various venues over the years. 

Diversity

Our Art curriculum offers diversity in the range of artists that we cover. Celebrating the successes of all local artists, both men and women, is important to our culturally rich and diverse Art curriculum. 

We show children that anyone can produce captivating, awe-inspiring and challenging artwork as it is a medium of expression that is personal, diverse and is born out of experience. 

Therefore our children are introduced to a whole array of different artists from all walks of life. There are children who have received guidance from a female fine-arts specialist at the Harris Museum and Gallery, those that have benefitted from work-shops led by a local male sculptor who owns his own bronze foundry in Ormskirk and who is responsible for producing the sculpture in the carpark at Morrison’s in Leyland and those who have enjoyed a print workshop based on the Arabian Nights with an older gentleman artist. All local artist, all with different specialisms. 

As well as looking at the talent that lies within Leyland, our children also get to explore traditional artwork from a range of eras i.e. the work of the Impressionists, they explore work from other cultures and marvel at some of the more challenging modern art on display at the Walker Art Gallery – having the opportunity to compare it to Ancient Greek sculpture. We explore both ancient and contemporary European artwork – from Greece, Italy and Scandinavia, as well as exploring artwork from further afield: looking at pieces from the Amazon basin, Central America and print-work inspired by the Arabian Nights. 

Equality of Opportunity

‘We truly believe that Art is open to everyone and everyone can succeed’. 

With this in mind, providing a rich and varied Art curriculum for our Pupil Premium children is vital. All visits out of school to introduce our children to the world of art, are funded through the Pupil Premium strategy for those who need it. Similarly, we have ensured that year groups with particularly high levels of vulnerable children have benefitted from visiting artists leading full day workshops, all of which have been funded through the schools commitment to achieving Artsmark. We have allocated money to ensure that we provide an enhanced and enriched curriculum for all.

    Our Portfolio of Key Skills - A focus on Progression

Take a look at our gallery!

Here you'll find a selection of photographs from all year groups at LMS. It will give you a flavour of the quality of work produced by our fabulous artists in school but remember - we will be adding to this gallery regularly as more work is completed - so keep calling in to check it out!