Staff CPD workshops
I am very aware that many primary teachers do not feel comfortable teaching art or even talking about it. The lack of guidance and details within the National Curriculum in comparison to Ofsted's expectations leave many struggling and not sure what to do and how best to approach the subject.
I won’t provide a set scheme of work but will help you think about the way that the entire school approaches art. I believe the teaching of art should reflect your children, their lives and their learning.
Art shouldn’t be a series of individual short projects - it needs to be taught with an ethos that runs through a whole school. As with other subjects, the teaching should be constantly looping back on itself and revisiting different strands, techniques and developing ideas and ways of thinking throughout each of the key stages. I believe in encouraging the children to adopt the mindset of an artist; reacting to events within their lives and learning, considering topics that interest them, and looking to other great artists to influence and develop their own styles and work.
How can I help you?
I will work with you to understand how I can best help your schools needs and the starting point for your staff. I can offer the following subjects and issues to cover:
Demystifying Art
Using a range of questioning and looking techniques, we look at a range of paintings by 'great artists' in a simple, clear way. How do you approach a painting? How much do you need to know?
I talk in a fuss-free way without the academic jargon that can be off putting. The language and vocabulary we use will be the same you should expect your children to use whilst discussing their work and that of other artists.
Cross-Curricular teaching
How can paintings and sculpture be used as a stimulus and prompt in a range of subjects including literacy, history, RE, PSHE even maths! I can provide lots of ideas and ways that art can be involved in a wide range of your lessons.
A painting isn’t an isolated, standalone object; it reflects and captures every element of life, ways of thinking and a moment in time. Art as a taught subject can be the same.
Working as an Artist
How does an artist work? How can we include that into the way we teach children and our expectations of them? How are artists influenced by the art of others? What inspires them? We look at planning a curriculum that incorporates this at it's heart.
Oracy
How can we use art to encourage even the quietest members of the class to be involved in discussions? How can paintings stimulate conversations, debates, listening activities?
‘Great Artists’
Who are the great artists that the National Curriculum want us to teach about?
Who do you currently study and look at across the different year groups?
Are they mainly dead, white European men?!
Do the artists and designers you look at reflect the breadth of diversity within your school?
It’s important that children can see themselves in the art that they look at.
Are there enough female artists? Modern, contemporary artists? Non-European cultures?
Who or what influenced those artists - the way they work and their subjects and themes? I can suggest a range of artists to look at - as well as looking at the masters of the Renaissance through to Impressionism and beyond.
Progression of Skills
It is difficult to create a whole school progression of skills for art. Especially so if you want it to be a working document that teachers actually use - rather than something that is filed away and never looked at.
Firstly, there are so many different strands that the children should have access to across their time. Also, the issue of children who are naturally gifted and those that have less aptitude for the subject is a genuine and real one that other subjects can have less of an issue with. Therefore, it’s essential that a wide range of techniques are covered. I can provide a number of these for you to cherry-pick the elements that are most relevant to your school and help you develop and tailor them to your needs.
What does ‘good’ art look like?
Is the way you assess the work based upon the final pieces alone or do you include their thought processes, understanding and development of ideas and studies within their sketchbooks? How can you help develop these?
I believe that drawing and sketching is an essential way of recording ideas and working things out but does it need to be at the heart of every final piece? How can the children who are not natural draughtsmen also have the opportunity to create and express themselves in a successful way?
Creativity
This is art! It should be fun and imaginative. Do your children get a chance to express themselves and their own interests? Can you provide opportunities for the children to led the learning and explore further what inspires them?
Celebration of Art
How can we celebrate and display the art our children create? What does this look like in a perfect school? What is realistic and do-able in your school? Can we find a balance between the two?
Workshops Available
I can provide the following CPD workshops:
3 hour half day
5 hour full day
2 hour Twilight training session.
These would be in-person and for up to 25 members of staff.
I charge £120 per hour
There would be no additional charges (unless you need any practical art materials provided.)
Please do contact me for any further information.