“But now, Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter, And all of us are the work of Your hand.”
Isaiah 64:8
Our vision
At St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we intend to provide an Art curriculum, which is accessible to all children across the whole of the primary phase. We deliver lessons that are engaging and well resourced to enable access to learning for all children. Our children aspire to be the best they can be in art lessons, developing their creative and artistic skills is a valuable aspect of children’s learning. It enhances creativity, which in turn fosters problem-solving skills. By participating in art, children develop resilience and confidence in their abilities and learn new things.
What does art and design look like at St. Joseph's?
Art at St. Joseph’s promotes risk-free exploration, and it is this freedom that inspires confidence. The power in art is not about what is there, but about how it makes you think and feel. Observing art improves creativity because it broadens your perspective by introducing new ways to look at the world. It invites inspiration by helping you think things you would not have thought before. It is this message that we aim to instill in our pupils as they REACH in everything they do.
Every child has a unique perspective to bring to their art lessons. With this in mind, by supporting pupils to reach their creative potential, they are able to confidently talk about their creativity describing what it looks like and what it means to them.
Art is a global concept and it is important that we enable every pupil to feel entitled to cultural capital. By this, we mean that pupils feels comfortable in a museum/gallery; they should feel like they have a voice when they think about or talk about art. Alongside this, our intent is to provide pupils with the vocabulary and language to talk about art in a confident way. This links to our schools belief that we are all made in God’s image and likeness understanding that we are all unique and special and are entitled to cultural capital.
By helping to develop skills and understanding, we are able to help pupils connect with their minds and bodies. Art is used as window to guided pupils through their emotions and understanding how they can be expressed through various artists and their own art. Furthermore, providing them with a positive outlet for processing their emotions and ideas. This links closely with our school value of empathy and truly understanding the concept, what it means and how it can be displayed.
At St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary, we look to draw all these concepts together to provide them with wide and varied experiences, whilst developing the whole child through our values (resilience, empathy, achievement, confidence, high expectations) and virtues (Faith, Hope and Love).
As it was once famously said:
“Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate,” Harvey Fierstein.