We are extremely proud that Torridon Primary School has a specific art classroom, and that all children from reception to year 6 have art lessons with our specialist teachers Emily or Flora. 

At Torridon primary school, we encourage our children to fully immerse themselves in the role of the artist and designer. We provide them with the tools to experiment, create and design. We also nurture artistic talent and help them to gain a deeper understanding of the subject, through exploring art history and more contemporary art work giving the children the confidence to be more critical thinkers.

We aim to deliver an Arts curriculum that is rich, broad and balanced showing progression of understanding and skills across school. We believe that the Arts is key to a rich cultural education whilst also giving children the opportunity to develop their creativity, both individually and collectively.
Every child is to have the opportunity to experience the richness of The Arts. Through our Arts Curriculum, we endeavour to provide opportunities to learn and enjoy the arts and culture from an early age as this develops a child’s creativity, inspires future careers and enriches their childhood. At Torridon, we aim to support children’s Arts learning in a fun, creative and engaging way that supports children’s social, moral, spiritual and cultural development (SMSC).

Our children will be able to organise their knowledge, skills and understanding around the following threshold concepts:

*Develop ideas

*Master techniques

*Take inspiration from the greats

These key concepts underpin learning in each unit. This enables the children to reinforce and build upon prior learning, allowing the children to make connections and build upon their prior learning. 

The vertical accumulation of knowledge and skills from Years 1 to 6 is mapped as follows:

Characteristic of a Torridon Artist

1. The children will have a rich and varied visual language and confidently be able to discuss other artist work and their own work.
2. The children will be able to sketch and draw confidently from memory, observation and imagination.
3. The children will be able to confidently use a variety of different mediums, such as paint, ink and or collage to produce high quality pieces of art work.
4. The children will be able to use a variety of tactile mediums such as clay and textiles to produce 3D work.
5. The children will know about a variety of different artists and the influences they have had on contemporary and modern art.
6. The children will be reflective learners and be able to evaluate and improve their practise through trial and error.
7. The children will have an in-depth knowledge of a variety of different techniques and processes and will be able to plan their own art works independently using this wealth of knowledge.
8. The children will be able to transfer skills learnt in the classroom such as maths and science and use them in art e.g. measuring, ratios, scale
9. The children will be able to work collaboratively to produce high quality work.
10. The children will have a passion for the art

The structure of the art curriculum ensures that children are able to develop their knowledge and understanding of the work of artists, craftspeople and designers from a range of times and cultures, and apply this knowledge to their own work. The consistent use of children’s sketchbooks means that children are able to review, modify and develop their initial ideas in order to achieve high quality outcomes. Children learn to understand and apply the key principles of art: line, tone, texture, shape, form, space, pattern, colour, contrast, composition, proportion and perspective. The opportunity for children to refine and develop their techniques over time is supported by effective lesson sequencing and progression between year groups. 

Through the explicit teaching of the Art skills, both the teachers and the children assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. At the end of every lesson children are given time to reflect on their learning using an end of lesson reflection sheet, the children will set themselves targets to meet and support them in their next lesson. We use verbal feedback in lessons and give the children art awards to identify the progress they are making, we also give the children the opportunity to share and feedback to each other in the classroom.