Banks Road Infant & Nursery School

Art

Curriculum Overview for Art and Design.pdf

Intent
At Banks Road, we want every child to leave our school loving Art and Design. We believe art should be joyful, expressive, and meaningful, giving children the confidence to explore ideas, experiment with materials, and take pride in what they create. Our teachers have carefully sequenced a subject that develops creativity, technical skill, and cultural awareness. Learning is organised with explicit skill progression from Nursery to Year 2 and Art is closely linked to wider curriculum themes to enrich learning and support meaningful connections. The curriculum is designed with children’s starting points in mind, ensuring fine motor skills, physical control, and artistic techniques are built progressively. We are committed to broadening children’s cultural capital through the study of a diverse range of artists from different genders, eras, and cultures to broaden pupils’ understanding of art in the world around them. Children are taught that art exists all around them and can be used as a form of communication, expression, and reflection.

Inclusion is central to our intent. Children with SEND and those who are disadvantaged access the same ambitious curriculum. Reasonable adjustments and adaptive teaching ensure barriers to learning are removed. Art is also used as a valuable means of expression, exploration, and sensory engagement, particularly for children with additional needs. Skills are revisited regularly to support long-term memory and confidence.

Implementation:

Our children experience a wide range of artistic techniques and materials, helping them to develop curiosity, imagination, and a growing understanding of the world around them. Art and Design at Banks Road is a space where children are encouraged to explore, take risks, and discover what they are capable of creating. The subject is delivered through a carefully sequenced, skills-based curriculum, collaboratively developed by our teachers from Nursery to Year 2. Each year group has a clear set of substantive and disciplinary skills that are explicitly taught, revisited, and built upon over time, ensuring children feel confident and supported as their abilities grow. These skills are thoughtfully embedded within wider curriculum projects so that learning feels purposeful and meaningful. For example, children manipulate wire to create poppies as part of a History project exploring Remembrance, allowing them to express understanding through creativity. Lessons are rich in teacher modelling, thoughtful questioning, opportunities to experiment, and hands-on application of techniques. Learning is carefully sequenced so that children can build on what they already know and remember more over time. Sketchbooks are valued throughout Key Stage 1 as a place for children to think, explore, practise, and reflect. They capture the journey of learning, not just finished pieces, but the ideas, changes, and discoveries along the way. We take pride in helping children feel connected to the place they live. Alongside studying a diverse range of artists from different cultures, eras, and backgrounds, we also explore artists from Nottingham and the local area, helping children see that creativity exists on their doorstep and that artists are real people within their own community. Quality First Teaching underpins all Art lessons, ensuring that every child feels included, supported, and encouraged to succeed. Through Art and Design, we nurture confidence, self-expression, and a genuine love of creativity that we hope children will carry with them long after they leave Banks Road.

Inclusion: For children with SEND, adaptations may include additional modelling, guided practice, scaffolded resources, or alternative tools to ensure full access to learning. Teachers demonstrate enthusiasm and high expectations while breaking learning down into small, achievable steps. This ensures children develop both confidence and technical accuracy.

Impact:

Our thoughtful provision and delivery enable us to clearly see the impact of what our children are learning in Art and Design. The way techniques are explicitly taught and revisited allows teachers to assess progress in small, manageable steps and respond quickly to children’s needs. Progress in Art and Design is often very visible in the work children produce. Over time, children show increasing control, confidence, and creativity, particularly in their technical skills and use of materials. They become more willing to experiment, refine their work, and make purposeful choices. Children’s growing appreciation and understanding of artists and artistic styles is supported through our learning walls and Sticky Knowledge folders, which are accessible in every classroom. These resources are actively used and regularly referred to, encouraging spontaneous conversations, thoughtful questioning, and meaningful recall of prior learning. For example, a displayed colour wheel naturally prompts discussion about colour mixing, primary and secondary colours, and complementary colours. Children regularly talk about their previous learning, helping them to consolidate knowledge, share ideas with others, and build confidence in using subject-specific vocabulary. Sketchbooks clearly show the journey of children’s thinking and artistic development. They are safe spaces where children feel confident to practise, try out ideas, make changes, and learn from mistakes, understanding that the process of creating is just as important as the final outcome. By the end of Year 2, children leave Banks Road with growing confidence, secure foundational skills, and a genuine enjoyment of Art and Design.

Inclusion: We make art accessible to all groups of children. We feel all children have the right to enjoy art and access opportunities at their own level and develop their own creativity. Art will mean different things to different children; for some it is expression, and for some, skill. We find for children with SEND and learning difficulties, art can be a real talent and we draw on this to promote self-esteem and celebrate different intelligences.

1/21

2/21

3/21

4/21

5/21

6/21

7/21

8/21

9/21

10/21

11/21

12/21

13/21

14/21

15/21

16/21

17/21

18/21

19/21

20/21

21/21

Art day

On Monday 7th October, the whole school took part in a special Art Day focused on the theme “Me, Myself and I”. Each year group explored self-portraits, with a different artistic focus including collage, painting, drawing, and printing, alongside the study of a range of inspiring artists.

A key focus throughout the day was understanding how art can support mental health and wellbeing. Children learned that making time and space to be creative can help us express thoughts, feelings, and emotions in a positive way. This theme ran through every class, giving children opportunities to reflect on themselves and communicate their ideas through art.

In Nursery, children enjoyed linking their artwork to the story Marvellous Me. They created colourful self-portraits using collaged crepe paper and drawing, supported by carefully planned continuous provision activities. These activities encouraged curiosity and independence while reinforcing the theme of self-portraits.

The Reception classes explored the work of collage artist Brianna McCarthy. Children created fabulous collaged self-portraits and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with a range of materials. They showed great curiosity and creativity, resulting in some wonderful pieces of artwork.

Year 1 had a fantastic time learning about Pablo Picasso. The children were enthusiastic and quickly grasped Picasso’s ideas around abstract faces. Using watercolours and oil pastels, they created vibrant and expressive abstract self-portraits. Teachers were incredibly proud of the children’s engagement and outcomes.

In Year 2, children explored the contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. They were inspired by her repeating dot patterns and bold, vibrant colours. The children experimented with printing dots in a variety of ways, and the day was a huge success, filled with creativity, excitement, and confidence.

The Art Day was a joyful celebration of creativity, self-expression, and wellbeing, and we are incredibly proud of the enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, and creativity shown by all our children.