Welcome to Art, Design and Production

Art Curriculum Vision

In art, progress does not consist in extension, but in knowledge of limits. Limitation of means determines style, engenders new form, and gives impulse to creation. (Braque, 1975)

Art in the secondary school encompasses three major challenges: firstly, how to ensure all students develop practical craft skills and their relevant applications; secondly, how to enable all students to use techniques according to objective procedural knowledge and rules and thirdly; how to enable all students to express subjective experiences through the manipulation of forms and colours.

Art and Design at Ark Acton is therefore designed to enable our students to develop the procedural skills necessary to express themselves and access the powerful knowledge of Art, recognising how Art has shaped our society over time and helped to define the human experience. This is achieved through sequential studies of observation and practical investigation, ranging from skills developed through the formal elements of drawing, to the analysis of artists work and the exploration of materials to inform practical outcomes.

Design and Production Curriculum Vision

If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. (William Morris)

At Ark Acton the fundamental purpose of Design is children bringing their own ideas to life; in Design & Production sessions we want to see our children to develop concepts from an idea through to sketching and modelling and then into high quality artefacts they are proud of.

Art

At Key Stage three students gain knowledge of the formal elements of drawing through a series of studies and should be able to describe their work using subject specific vocabulary. Students begin to explore and develop a deeper knowledge of Art through the study of artists, practical application of skills, and through their ability to analyse, articulate and communicate this.

At Key Stage Four students further deepen their knowledge of Art through sustained and focussed study of artists, and the context of their work, developing skills in the application of different medium. Inspired both by the work of artists, students develop their own purposeful investigations to inform their art portfolio leading to developed outcomes.

Design and Production

For the 14 weeks of the Summer Term in Year 7, 8 and 9 – all KS3 students work on a Design and Production challenge.

To achieve this, students need to be able to see the value of their work, with an authentic end-goal or ‘real-life’ problem in mind. Our curriculum centres around 3 core pillars, which are embedded at Key Stage 3:

Designing: Design is an iterative process where mistakes are a welcome part of learning. Children will take pride in refining, developing, and redrafting their experiences and communicating ideas in their own portfolio. In each project, students are encouraged to explore and express their own identity as designers, continually pushing themselves to create their best work.

Making: Children will explore a range of both commercial and hand-made processes. We explicitly teach simple skills using a range of materials and media so that children can all make beautiful products with purpose.

Curiosity: We want to transform the lives of our students, and their local community, by encouraging them to question the world around us to identify real world problems, find out how things are made and what the impact is of products on our environment.

In Key Stage 3 our curriculum begins with a project that challenges pupils to come up with a design for a healthy fruit juice carton and graphic campaign. During this unit, pupils will practice idea generation and sketching as well as simple cutting, printing techniques to make a prototype. The project culminates in writing a design pitch in which they explain their design concept to persuade the Principal and catering manager to invest in their new design concept. This also develops students’ confidence and character.

All Year 7 subjects

In Year 8, pupils develop further their skills in sketching and ideas generation in response to a real-life brief to create a Local Hero / Black History themed T-Shirt to be sold in our reception. As part of this project, pupils learn to use a variety of digital and hand printing techniques such as transfer and stencilling. They can also use stitching.  Alongside this, pupils learn marketing skills through working as a team to create promotional material and write their own captions for social media for the sale of the T-Shirt.

All Year 8 subjects

In year 9, students develop their making skills by learning techniques including cutting, CAD and gluing. This project culminates in students producing a prototype “point-of-sale” display designed to promote healthy eating and reduce food and material waste. They will build on their evaluative skills by taking feedback from the catering staff before moving to their final prototype.  This project also builds students’ cultural awareness by taking inspiration from product display conventions from around the world.

All Year 9 subjects