Discover the Visual Arts curriculum at Sussex independent school Sompting Abbotts
The creation of art is a powerful means of self-expression and creative development. It's also an evolving skill that's relevant to both traditional and digital learning and many different creative career paths. We encourage all our pupils to make full use of traditional and digital art forms in the work they create to give them more opportunities to develop relevant skills for our ever changing world.
Children discovering the Old Masters on school visit
At Sompting Abbotts Prep School, we believe that every child has the ability to express themselves visually with the right guidance, inspiration and confidence to do it. Art and design stimulates creativity and imagination. It provides visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a unique way of responding to the world. Pupils use colour, form, texture, pattern and different materials and processes to communicate what they see, feel and think.
They explore ideas and meaning in the work of artists, sculptors and craftspeople and designers and learn about the diverse functions of art, craft and design in contemporary life and different times and cultures.
A selection pupil 'selfies' – or self-portraits in more traditional parlance
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
Meet the Head of Art at Sompting Abbotts
Aims
To enable children to record from first-hand experience and from their imaginations
To increase their critical awareness of the roles and uses of art and design in different times and cultures
To develop increasing confidence in the use of visual and tactile elements and materials
To foster an enjoyment and appreciation of visual arts and a knowledge of arts, artists and designers
To encourage children to select appropriate tools and techniques and follow safe procedures
To develop an understanding of technological processes and procedures and their contribution to society
Approach
We use a variety of learning styles in Art and Design Technology lessons. We do this best through a mixture of whole class and individual and group lessons. We give children within lessons the opportunity to work on their own and collaborate with others on projects in two and three dimensions and on different scales. We give them the chance to use a big range of media and resources.
A display of outdoor-inspired work in the Art Studio
We use the National Curriculum national scheme of work for this foundation subject as the basis for our curriculum planning in Key stage one. However we then adapt this to our own scheme of work for Key stages two and three. We build planned progression into the scheme of work for all children as they move up the school.
What child doesn’t love to collect handfuls of glossy brown conkers? At Sompting Abbotts, they don't just fill their pockets — even socks become makeshift pouches. And so, at this time of the year, we send the children out into our school grounds to look for shiny conkers (not that they need any persuading).