At Riverside Academy we use Chris Quigley’s 'Essentials' alongside the National Curriculum 2014 to teach Art & Design. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, we follow the EYFS Curriculum in Development Matters and Chris Quigley's 'Essentials'. We teach the skills, knowledge and understanding through our themes.

We believe that Art & Design stimulates pupil creativity and imagination. It provides visual, tactile and sensory experiences and a way of understanding and responding to the world. Pupils are encouraged to use colour, pattern, texture, line, tone, shape, form, space and different materials and processes to communicate what they see, feel and think.  Through art, craft and design activities they learn to make informed value judgements and aesthetic and practical decisions, becoming actively involved in making images, objects and learning to shape their own environment. They explore, through discussion and the making of art, the ideas and meanings in the work of artists, craftspeople and designers. They learn the part that art, craft and design plays in their own and others’ lives in contemporary life and in different times and cultures. This enables pupils to become involved in, enjoy, understand and appreciate the visual arts which enriches their personal lives and enables them to understand the role they play in society.

Within Art & Design at Riverside Academy, we strive to:

• help raise levels of aspiration through inspiration – through showing what’s possible, and how
• build a creative climate in which individuals are able to aspire to meet their own creative potential
• ensure progression across the school through a skills based approach to teaching and learning
• enable pupils to apply and develop their art skills across the curriculum and beyond

Please click on the link below to see progression in Art & Design.