At Billesley Primary School, we strongly believe that art plays an integral part in children's physical, cultural, social and aesthetic development. Our aim is to teach Art and Design in a fun and creative way which ensures all children are engaged, inspired and challenged throughout each unit. We aspire to encourage students to develop and use their skills to create their own independent works of art, craft and design which reflects their own individual ideas and imagination. Taught through a concept-based approach, children explore wider themes which are revisited in different topics, years and other subjects to support a more embedded approach to their learning.
The Art curriculum at Billesley is exciting and diverse, covering a wide range of artistic skills. Throughout their school life, pupils have the opportunity to work with a variety of different materials in order to produce art work linked to their theme. Over their time at Billesley each child completes units which develop skills in painting, printing, 3D sculpture and digital art which enables them to experiment with a vast selection of different materials including pencils, pastels, charcoal, clay and a range of paints as well as exploring photography and media.
Similarly, our Design Technology curriculum enables children to explore, plan and evaluate their own ideas in a thrilling and engaging way. Pupils develop knowledge and skills in construction, mechanisms and are taught how to use a range of materials and equipment. Using creativity and imagination (and inspiration from architects and engineers), pupils design and make products including sets, buildings, moving structures and functional textiles with many units having sustainability at their core. In food technology, children are introduced to chefs from around the world and explore food through taste, research, planning, preparation and photography - they even learn how to make a Birmingham Balti!
Each lesson begins with exposure to art from an artist they are studying which encourages them to use their P4C skills to critique the world around them. These artists are carefully chosen to expose our children to people from different backgrounds, cultures and countries as well as exploring a varied range of artforms. We particularly pay attention to highlighting contemporary artists who are paving the way in the modern world such as Takashi Murakami and Nadia Janjua as well as classic artists like Frida Khalo and Vincent Van Gogh.
The Arts at Billesley
As an Artsmark Platinum school, we are passionate about the Arts and the impact that wider artistic opportunities can have on our children. Because of this, we work with many creative practitioners each year to broaden our children’s cultural experiences, allow them to expand their imagination and have access to the creative world around them.
Creativity Collaboratives
We are the lead school in The Elliot Foundation’s Creativity Collaborative working with Durham University on their 3 year research project funded by the Arts Council to develop creative approaches to teaching and learning through partnerships with local creative practitioners. We share our research with Birmingham City University who evaluate our work with the ultimate goal of facilitating system-wide changes in the DfE and Ofsted about what they consider creative practice to look like. We are one of 10 collaboratives in the UK and we are focusing on teacher empowerment to deliver creatively focused on local heritage and identity. From this programme we have been working closely with two creative practitioners:
Stan’s Cafe
We have a longstanding partnership with Stan’s Cafe who have shared their love of creative learning approaches with us on numerous projects since 2012. Most recently, we have been developing creative ways to tackle tricky topics as part of the Creativity Collaboratives programme, culminating in our end of Year 6 show last year - (No Such Thing As A) Civil War.
Open Theatre
As part of our work as a Creativity Collaborative we have been working with Open Theatre to support our children with additional needs through non-verbal, physical theatre to explore their creative potential.
The Birmingham REP
Each year we work with drama practitioners from the Birmingham REP Theatre to explore the impact that drama can have on our curriculum. We are currently working on an immersive theatre project in religious education to support our teachers in creative approaches to teaching RE and bring excitement to our children when they learn about other cultures beliefs.