Art and Design

At Green Lane children are given the opportunity to work with a range of media, such as paint, clay and fabrics, to create their own compositions. Art and design makes a unique contribution to a child’s education as it offers experiences, ways of learning and forms of communication that differ from other areas of the curriculum.

Staff facilitate the children in understanding, enjoying and creating a variety of art forms through:

1. exploring a range of starting points.
2. Working individually and collaborating with others.
3. Using a range of materials and processes.
4. Investigating different aspects of art and design.

Opportunities are planned to develop skills systematically throughout the school allowing children to apply and build on what they have already learnt.

Pupils are able to take part in a lunchtime Art Club organized by ‘Busy Lizzies’, a professional art company. School staff also run key stage appropriate art clubs. In addition to the clubs Busy Lizzies offer selected children additional art sessions to support them with an identified need.

Last year, during the Summer term, Green Lane held an ‘Art Week’. Each class undertook a collaborative project, ranging from silk painting to photo montage. At the end of the week all work was displayed in our own ‘gallery’ for children and parents to view, we even appeared in the local newspaper! The week was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by all involved.

This academic year the school is involved in an exciting project with the Tate Gallery and an advanced skills teacher from the borough. In recognition of the talent amongst our children we will be selecting some budding artists to take part. This will involve visits to the gallery to view some of the exhibits and workshops at the Tate, as well as back in school. We hope that not only will this be a great experience for the individuals involved, but also an opportunity to further raise awareness of the visual arts throughout the school and wider community through sharing of their experiences and work.

Design Technology

Children at Green Lane are encouraged to develop their designing and making skills throughout the school starting right from Foundation stage.  Children develop their early skills by learning to using simple tools safely and constructing with a range of materials with a purpose in mind. They also begin to look at the things around them and start to wonder and explore how they work and how they are made. By the end of their time in year six, the children will be using their skills to identify a purpose and create criteria for products they make, carrying out market research and learning to appreciate wider views of a variety of products.

Design Technology allows children to apply and further develop skills learnt across the curriculum with the need for measuring, fair testing, use of IT and control systems and also use of art and design in the presentation of the finished product. Children enjoy Design Technology and it is a great chance to allow children to develop their creativity in real world situations.

Creative Arts

The school places special emphasis on developing creativity, imagination and personal response in individual pupils. In the National Curriculum the arts have two subjects dedicated to the teaching of the creative arts which are Art and Music, with dance under the National Curriculum subject of Physical Education and drama under English.

The arts play an important role in the education of all pupils and, therefore are valued as a cross curricular tool in teaching of the entire curriculum. They encourage the exploration of values, foster imagination and creativity, develop practical and perceptual skills and promote intellectual and aesthetic development.