Our vision for Art at Woodlea

At Woodlea, we want all children to leave at the end of KS2 with a confidence to work creatively with the skills to record their imagination and ideas. During KS3, we want children to be able to apply their experience of a range of techniques, materials and a good understanding of how humans use art for self-expression and making sense of their lives. 

‘It seems so obvious, but a lot of people simply don’t understand that, at the beginning and end of all the things that are essential to a civilised world is a creative human being. That the cars that they drive in, and the suits that they’re wearing, these items all started off with work by a creative person. That if it wasn’t for artists and designers, you would have had to walk out without your clothes on.’  Lubaina Himid RA, CBE

It is therefore an important part of every child’s education, or as artist Bob and Roberta Smith would say:

‘Art is your human right’ and ‘All schools should be art schools’

Our intent 

At Woodlea, we aim to create children who are confident in working creatively. From the minute that they join us in year 3 they are encouraged to see the importance of art to humans from its earliest origins. By the time they leave in year 6, children have experienced a range of artistic techniques and materials and have a good understanding of how humans have used art through the ages for self expression and making sense of their lives. We encourage our children to see art making as a process of experimentation and development and recognise that creative thinking can help us in other areas of our lives.
 

How we implement our curriculum

At Woodlea, we explore the three main techniques of painting, printmaking and sculpture. Alongside this we are continuously developing our drawing skills and techniques.

We learn about artists throughout history; from our prehistoric ancestors up to artists living and working today. Through looking at these artists, we aim to learn their techniques and use them to produce our own artworks. The artists that we study are drawn from a wide and diverse range such as: Lubaina Himid, Yinka Shonibare, Andrea Buttner, Bernini, Hans Holbein, Kiki Smith, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Barbara Kruger, David Hockney, Tony Bevan, Albrecht Durer, Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai.

We are also developing links with local artists so that the children can begin to develop their aspirations towards a creative career.

The impact of art in our school

Art has become something that our children love to do and take a great deal of pride in. They can see how their learning in previous years is developed and skills built upon. Our children enjoy the variety of materials and techniques that they use and apply the knowledge that they gained, from looking at the work of other artists, to their own work. Art lessons have inspired some children to explore their interest further at home. For instance: many of our year 6 children have asked their parents to buy them Lino-printing kits after learning the skill at school. 

Year 6 have been looking at British artist and curator, Lubaina Himid. Lubaina’s art focuses on themes of cultural history and reclaiming identities. Year 6 designed, created and evaluated their designs, using Lubaina’s ‘Naming the Money’ cutouts as their inspiration. 

Year 4 have focused on the artists Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai, two Japanese artists whose work was based around the printmaking process. Year 4 experimented with different ways of creating textures before using Lino tiles to carve out their designs. 

2023 was an extremely busy year for our budding artists here at Woodlea. Take a look at some of the amazing work that was produced last year. 

Children in year 3 have been using a range of drawing mediums to explore mark-making. They have explored the prehistoric cave drawings seen in historic sites like Lascaux and Chauvet and they have worked in that style. First, they inscribed the image into wet clay and then, when it was dry, they painted into the inscribed line. During the Spring Term, Year 3 will be casting Bronze/Iron Age jewellery. 

During the spring term, Year 3 have been learning about the casting process to produce jewellery casts from plaster. First, they looked at examples of bronze/iron age patterns and considered what the patterns might have represented. Then, the children made a bank of shapes and symbols to draw from in their own work. Next, the children experimented making a range of different marks in clay using a range of different tools and techniques. Their understanding of the casting process was developed by casting from a simple patterned/textured clay mould. The children then explored designs on paper for making an iron age necklace, using a range of symbols from iron age art, which they then evaluated and used to decide on their final piece. Finally, they made their clay mould and used this to cast from. During the summer term, Year 3 will be printmaking by creating repeating patterns with Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

During the Summer Term, Year 3 have been learning about the relief printing process in order to create prints of Egyptian hieroglyphs. To begin, the children explored hieroglyphs by recording them in their sketch books and trying out differernt combinations. Then, they experimented with mark making into 'safe-print' foam, noticing how the image prints 'back-to-front'. Finally, the children printed their final designs onto fabric. 

Year 4 have analysed a range of Greek pottery and have used templates to begin practice drawing figures in proportion. Next, they practiced drawing figures in different poses with Greek costume and they designed their own intricate patterns. Finally, Year 4 had a visit from local ceramic artist Cath Criscenti https://criscenticeramics.blog . She taught children about shaping, moulding, strengthening and decorating their Greek pottery. The super Greek pottery was then decorated on Greek Day. During the Spring Term, Year 4 will be exploring oriental printmaking. 

During the spring term, Year 4 have been learning about the origins of printmaking in China and Japan through looking at the work of Hokusai and Hiroshige. They evaluated the works of the artists and shared their thoughts, thinking about mark making and composition. Then, the children practiced their mark making techniques before creating a library of different marks made using the 'safe print'. Children noticed that what is left behind on the printing block is what would be printed. Then, the children used photographs of famous Chinese landmarks to develop designs that they could print. Finally, the children printed their final image onto a postcard. During the summer term, Year 4 will be developing their carving skills by creating Roman busts based on the works of Michaelangelo, Bernini, Auguste Rodin and Edmonia Lewis. 

During the Summer Term, Year 4 have been learning about figurative sculpture and how it can be made through carving blocks of stone. First, the children analysed the works of Michelangelo, Bernini, Auguste Rodin and Edmonia Lewis. Then, the children improved their skills in drawing portraits in proportion. The children then became fimiliar with the carving process by removing material from blocks of soap. Finally, the children sketched designs for their final piece and carved head and shoulders 'portrait busts'. 

Children in year 5 have compared relief prints of the Nativity by Albrecht Durer and Andrea Buttner to help them explore how to represent texture and pattern. They built upon their learning in years 3 and 4 printing using ‘safeprint’ sheets and then created a two colour reduction print of a nativity scene for a Christmas card. 

During the Spring Term, Year 5 have be developed their understanding of colour mixing and perspective drawing to create painted landscape scenes. They began by looking at examples of landscapes painted at different points in history and discussing the effect of composition and colour. The children were encouraged to develop their own opinions, explaining their ideas with reference to evidence in the pieces. Next, they developed their mark making abilities, experimenting with a range of drawing media and one point perspective. The children then worked out their own composition by sketching ideas and thinking about how the viewer's eye moves around the picture. Their final piece was a painting of their own scene of a local Leyland landmark. During the summer term, Year 5 will be developing their understanding of sculpture based on the works of Yinka Shonibare. 

During the Summer Term, Year 5 have been exploring what life on other planets may look like based on the sculptures of Yinka Shonibare. First, the children looked at the works of Shonibare and they responded to this using a range of question prompts. Then, they learned how to make an armature and experimented with different poses whilst keeping the basic proportions. Finally, the children sketched their final pieces and created them using mod roc on an armature. 

Children in year 6 whave built upon their learning using ‘safeprint’ sheets in previous years and they have been learning how to produce 2 colour reduction prints through lino printing. They have looked at the relief prints of Hans Holbein and Tony Bevan and the ‘Obama - Hope’ poster by Shepard Fairey to design, carve and print a poster. During the Spring Term, Year 6 will be exploring colour mixing, mixed media and construction. 

During the spring term, Year 6 have developed their understanding of colour mixing, mixed-media and construction to make a figure inspired by Lubaina Himid's installation 'Naming the Money'. They began by studying examples of Lubaina Himid's figures and discussing their thoughts and reactions. Then, they built upon their Year 5 work of mixing secondary colours and developed their understanding. Next, the children sketched out different costume ideas before selecting and developing their ideas into freestanding cutouts. During the summer term, Year 6 will be developing their casting skills by creating WW2 medals. 

During the Summer Term, Year 6 have developed their knowledge of the casting process by producing a medal cast from plaster. First, they looked at examles of medals from different countries from WW2. The children used tracing paper to take elements of existing medals and combine them to make their own designs.  After that, the children sculpted their medals and cast in plaster from their clay moulds. Finally, the children painted their medals using metalic paint.