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South East Essex Academy Trust (SEEAT)

The Deanes

Art

Year 7 Curriculum plans

Term What are we learning? What Knowledge, Understanding and Skills will we gain? What will excellence look like? How will these be assessed?

Autumn

Key skills-Formal elements.

In this unit pupils explore a variety of different drawing techniques, understanding the formal elements of art such as line, tone, space, movement, mark making, pattern and texture. Looking at the artists Marandi and Kandinsky.

Students gain a knowledge and understanding of Line, Colour, Form, Shape, Texture, Space and movement. Students will develop drawing, mark making and different shading skills. A student that consistently demonstrates the ability to control materials with confidence and shows in their work a clear understanding of the different formal elements of Art. Students will be assessed on their work completed during the Shape and Space lessons.

Autumn

Sweet shape-3D

Pupils will start the unit with first hand observational drawings of Liquorice All sorts that they will develop into a mixed media larger scale picture and a clay final piece.

Knowledge and understanding of how to use a grid to enlarge observational drawings.

Students will learn how to mould, shape and add texture to their 3D clay final pieces.

Students will learn how to complete an artist research study. 

An unscaled well-proportioned observational drawing.

Excellence will be a well-designed idea that has been made neatly from clay, has no rough sharp edges and has been painted neatly with precision.

Students will be assessed on their observational drawings and 3D clay sculptures using the AP1 assessment criteria.

Spring

World art-African masks

Students will learn what an African mask looks like and how it can change its appearance based on the country that it is from. The students will also learn how to build a 3D mask. The unit has links with Geography and Ethics.

Students will develop drawing skills, understanding of cultural art in the form of African masks, their aesthetic differences and where they originate from. Excellence will be a well-designed mask that has been made with confidence and shows a clear understanding of the contextual links. Students will get verbal feedback throughout the unit and will be assessed on their Final 3D mask.

Spring

Post Impressionism

Pupils will learn about the work of the post-Impressionist artists. Pupils will learn how the Impressionist’s worked and how and why they got their name.

Pupils will build on previous contextual studies by adding the work of Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, George Seurat, Pierre - Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro.


Students will gain knowledge of the post-Impressionist movement and build on their painting skills. They will use a variety of limited colour palettes in order to achieve this. They will study colour theory and learn to analyse the key artists and motivation of this remarkable movement. Some students may have briefly studied impressionism in primary school but would not have spent time analytically working using the art specific language and learning the history behind the rise of the Impressionist era.

Students will be assessed on their Haystacks by Monet image that they will complete using oil pastels.

Excellence will be evident in a well-executed image of Monet’s ‘Haystack’ in which pupils will show a confidence in their use of oil pastels.

Summer

3D letters-Found objects

Introduction to Graphic art.

Learn about Robert Indiana / Keith Haring and either: Warhol, Lichtenstein, Picasso, Mondrian, Klimt, Haring, Seurat, Pollock, Banksy, Van Gogh, O' Keeffe, Riley. Design 3D letters inspired by an artist.
All artists research to be in the form of extended writing. Analysing an artist's framework sheet promotes critical thinking and extended writing. Group discussions and crits to discuss work with peers. Extended reading is expected when researching artists and movements in order to write relevant and analytical theses. Students support each other in paired work ensuring understanding of tasks and processes covered. Learning to understand and use key terminology for the subject.

3D letters with [painted decoration inspired by of the three artists, outstanding flat papier Mache good overall 3D structure.

Written steps for each technique recalling and putting into words after the lesson. Being able to use correct equipment and technique names. 

Analysis of artists' work and being able to pick out key characteristics and imitate them in their own work, showing understanding. 3D letter construction and design.

Summer

Pop Art

Students will learn who Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein are and the connection with pop art.

They will learn how Pop art and the advertising agencies are linked.

Students will use Pop art drawing techniques and use of media. 


Students will gain a knowledge of a variety of famous artworks from the Pop Art movement. Students will learn how to create Pop Art inspired work and will produce an Ink print. Excellence will be evident in the form of print work with very clean lines and precision with the print process. Students will get verbal feedback throughout the unit and will be assessed on their final print work.

Year 8 Curriculum plans

Term What are we learning? What Knowledge, Understanding and Skills will we gain? What will excellence look like? How will these be assessed?

Autumn

Natural forms-Formal elements

Develop drawing and painting from observation skills, using fruit, flowers, shells etc.

Learn about George Seurat and Pointillism. 

Learn how to draw using ink, chalk and charcoal, biro, colour pencil, pen, dots etc

Develop large final piece in mixed media using different techniques and processes.

Develop a 3D group piece.

Understand the work of Seurat and pointillism and be able to make work in the style of these artists.  Understand how to draw from observation and scale up. They will know how to use mixed media to develop final pieces. They will be able to explain connections with the artist.

Explanation and demonstration of practical activities / techniques. 

Question and answer to check prior knowledge / understanding of task.

Levelling activities, peer and self-assessment, reviewing work verbally. 

Range of individual, partner and group tasks.
Students will be assessed on their development work, media and technique experimentation and their final piece.

Autumn

The day of the Dead-3D

Pupils are introduced to the Mexican holiday ‘the day of the dead’ ‘Día de los Muertos’.

 

They will learn parts of Mexican culture and study the work from two famous Mexican artists. 

 

They will develop their clay skills with learning different techniques in order to produce their clay final piece.


Knowledge and understanding of how to use the theme of ‘Día de los Muertos’ to inspire their ideas.

 

Students will learn how to complete an artist research study.  

 

Students will learn how to mould, shape and add texture to their 3D clay final pieces. 

Excellence will be a well-designed idea that has been made neatly from clay, has no rough sharp edges and has been painted neatly with precision. Students will be assessed on their artist research, design ideas and their 3D clay sculptures using the AP1 assessment criteria.

Spring

World art-Aboriginal Art

Students will learn what aboriginal art is.

Students will learn the culture and history of Aboriginal art. Students will learn what their symbols mean.

The students will also learn how to produce a piece of Aboriginal art using Aboriginal techniques. The unit has links with Geography and Ethics.


Students will develop drawing skills, understanding of cultural of Aboriginal art and their use of symbols and aesthetic differences and where they originate from.

Students will also learn how to create patterns using the aboriginal drawing techniques.

Excellence will be a well-designed final piece using Aboriginal techniques, which have been produced with confidence and shows a clear understanding of the contextual links.

Students will get verbal feedback throughout the unit and will be assessed on their final piece block printing.

Spring

Fauvism

Introduction to fauvism, students will learn about the post-impressionist artist who founded the fauvism movement. Students will learn about the artists Henri Matisse, André Derain and what connection the modern-day artist Rob Ryan has with Matisse. 

Students will learn how to produce a colour wheel and how the fauvism movement were famous for their bold use of clashing colours. 

Students will learn paper cutting techniques.

What is Fauvism? 

Who is Henri Matisse? Who is Rob Ryan? And what is the connection between both artists? 

What is the different paper cutting techniques and how can I apply them to my own work?

Students will gain an understanding on how to use bold clashing colours and various paper cutting techniques.

Students will produce in-depth artist research and drawings, paintings and paper cuts showing an understanding of the fauvism movement. Students' work will assessed by their use of colour in their colour theory assessment.

Summer

3D-Waste not want not

Students will learn what sustainable art is. They gain an understanding of current artists who produce sustainable art.   

Students will learn how to produce sculptures using everyday rubbish and how to work on a celebrative piece of artwork.

Students will learn the 6 R’s.


We will have a greater understanding of the work of the following artists, Dan Cretu, Michelle Reader and Mark Oliver. 

What does sustainability mean? How is industry linked to global warming and climate change? 

The 6, Rs of design: Recycle, Reuse, Repair, Rethink, Reduce, Refuse. 

We will learn different sculpture techniques and how to produce a piece of art out of everyday rubbish.

Excellence will be shown in-depth artist research with very good skill development in the style of the artist. Students will be assessed on their artist research and 3D making skills.

Summer

Op Art 

Students will gain an understanding of the purpose and context of Optical Art (Op Art), particularly the use of patterns, tone and shading.

Students will use creativity and imagination in the production of their drawings and cube.

Students will establish a direct link between the work of artist Bridget Riley and the work undertaken in class.

Students will learn a range of Art techniques including composition, measuring, templates, shading, mixing paints and selection of colours.

Students will participate in an activity where they will reflect on 4 images of optical art and identify elements and principles of art as well as descriptive words the image reminds them of.

Students will use sketches of their Op Art inspired patterns to plan and produce a black and white cube.

Students will be informally assessed on their response list to the 4 Op Art images and their participation in the class discussion about Op Art.

Students will complete a pre-assessment worksheet checking for pre-requisite knowledge of optical art.

Year 9 Curriculum plans

Term What are we learning? What Knowledge, Understanding and Skills will we gain? What will excellence look like? How will these be assessed?

Autumn

Renaissance-Formal elements

Develop drawing and painting skills, composition, one- and two-point perspective, golden ratio.

The word 'renaissance' is derivative from the French word for 'rebirth', signifying how Europe came out of the dark ages, reawakening in art, culture, science, technology, and music. It was an incredible time of beauty, blossoming with creativity and curiosity.

Understand the work of Leonardo da Vinci is best known as an artist, his work as a scientist and an inventor makes him a true Renaissance man. He serves as a role model applying the scientific method to every aspect of life, including art and music.

16th century Italian renaissance art.

Explanation and demonstration of practical activities / techniques. 

Question and answer to check prior knowledge / understanding of task.

Levelling activities, peer and self-assessment, reviewing work verbally. 

Range of individual, partner and group tasks.

Students will be assessed on their composition and use of perspective.

Autumn

Barbara Hepworth-3D

Students will learn about the artist Barbara Hepworth- make a 3d clay figurative sculpture. The work in this unit will build upon observational drawing skills from the start of Year 8 and the sculptural skills will help the students who go onto GCSE Art in Year 10. 

 

Students will learn about the work of Barbra Hepworth and the drawing process he used to help design his sculptures. Pupils will learn a variety of clay sculpture techniques and how light and shadow play a big part in Hepworth’s work. Students will use life drawing sessions to help assist with their sculpture designs.

Excellence will come in the form of a confidently designed sculpture that has been made with precision and shows a clear understanding of the work of Barbara Hepworth’s figurative sculptures 

Students will be assessed on their final painted sculptures and their sketchbook life drawing figures.

 

Spring

World art-Indonesia  

Students will learn what Indonesian art is.

Students will learn the culture and history of Indonesian art. Students will learn various artist techniques which incarcerate textiles. 

The students will also learn how to produce a piece of Indonesian art using the Batik technique. The unit has links with Geography and Ethics.


Students will develop drawing skills, understanding of the culture of Indonesian art and their use of textiles and aesthetic differences and where they originate from.

Students will also learn how to use resist dying techniques.

Excellence will be a well-designed final piece using Indonesian techniques, that has been produced with confidence and shows a clear understanding of the contextual links. Students will get verbal feedback throughout the unit and will be assessed on their artist research and final piece.

Spring

Abstract Art

Students will learn what abstract art is. 

Students will learn who Jackson Pollock, Wassily Kandinsky and Georges Braque are and their concepts of abstract art.  

Students will also learn how music can influence painting and how they can use different mark making techniques to portray moods.
Students will develop drawing skills through the freedom of expression. Looking at the three artist techniques and learning how to reproduce them and gain an understanding into the concepts behind them. Excellence will be sustained development and showing an understanding of abstract and a well-designed final piece using the techniques learned throughout the UNIT. Students will get verbal feedback throughout the unit and will be assessed on their artist research and interpretations of their work as well as their final piece.

Summer

Life events

Students will be learning about the famous anti-war masterpiece ‘Guernica’. Students will be learning how current events such as war inspire and influence artists in their work.

Students will learn about the famous street artist Banksy and learn how to produce their stencils based on current events.


Students will learn about the artist Picasso and his introduction to cubism and this technique has been used in his anti-war piece ‘Guernica’ they will also learn about the bombing at Guernica during WW2.

Students will then learn about the current day street artist Banksy and his own anti-war artwork. Students will also learn how to produce their stencils inspired by the artist Banksy and techniques required to produce a stencilled art piece based on current events.

Excellence will look like a thoughtful stencil design depicting anti-war based on current events.

Skills used to produce the stencil will show a high degree of precision with cutting as well as a strong statement coming through either through wording or imagery.

Students will be assessed on the stencil design and their connection with current events, also the end result and the quality of the techniques used to cut and print their own stencils. 

Summer

Comic Art

Students will Learn how to use mix media they will about comic book art and structure of story boards to tell a story.

Use their own ideas to inform a final piece

Learn about marvel Illustrators, Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes comic strips and Lichtenstein’s comic art.


Students will gain a knowledge of how to structure a comic book to tell a story. Students will learn how to design their own super hero.

Students will learn how to produce graphic illustrations of their own super heroes using a variety of mix media.
Excellence will be evident from the students own imaginative super hero designs with an exciting back story on how they became a super hero. 

Students will get verbal feedback throughout the unit and will be assessed on their final comic strip.

Year 10 Curriculum plans

Term What are we learning? What Knowledge, Understanding and Skills will we gain? What will excellence look like? How will these be assessed?
Autumn

Natural & Mechanical. GCSE Component 1:

Students will gain an understanding of the structure of the GCSE course. Introduction to the natural and mechanical project.

Students will learn about still life art and various media techniques mark making, biro & ink drawing, chalk and charcoal.

Students gain a knowledge and understanding of Line, of various media and mark making from Colour, Form, Shape, Texture, Space and movement. Students will develop drawing, mark making with ink and different shading skills.

A student that consistently demonstrates the ability to control materials with confidence and shows in their work a clear understanding of the different formal elements of Art.

AQA GCSE A01, AO2 & AO3 assessment criteria.
Autumn

Natural & Mechanical. GCSE Component 1:

Students will gain an understanding of natural and mechanical objects and how they can relate to each other.

Students will learn about still life art and various media techniques watercolour, brusho, composition through an A04 final piece.

Knowledge and understanding of how to use a grid to enlarge observational drawings still life.

Students will learn how to use a theme to develop ideas for their own meaning AO4 final pieces.  

An unscaled well-proportioned observational drawing.

Excellence will be a well-designed idea that has been made neatly from clay, has no rough sharp edges and has been painted neatly with precision.

AQA GCSE A01, AO2, AO3 & A04. Assessment criteria.
Spring German Expressionism, GCSE Component 1: Students will learn about the German Expressionist movement. Students will learn about the artists who contributed to this movement and the style of work that they created. Such as Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Students will learn about German expressionism and the key artist involved, students will learn how to produce a self portrait using the grid method and how to transfer their portraits into lino print designs. A successful self-portrait transferred to a lino print design in the style of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff print work. AQA GCSE A01, AO2 & AO3 assessment criteria.
Spring German Expressionism, GCSE Component 1: Students will learn about the German Expressionist movement. Students will learn about the artists who contributed to this movement and the style of work that they created. Such as Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Students will learn how to produce a Lino print and will gain an understanding of how the German Expressionists used colour intensity in their paintings. A strong lino print that has precision in the cut areas, revealing a very clean lino print, using a variety of colourways. AQA GCSE A01, AO2, AO3 & A04. Assessment criteria.
Summer

Serialist Identity, GCSE

Component 1: Surrealism balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. The movement's artists find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional. Students will be learning about symbolism in art and how to use it in their own work. Students will be learning various clay sculpturing techniques.
Students will learn how to answer an exam question in the true allotted time under the theme of Surrealism. Students will develop and enhance their practical preparation to create a range of original final pieces, first of which will be a clay serialist sculpture, then a serialist landscape.  Students will develop their skills with a variety of artist media. Students will show their understanding of all the assessment objectives with high quality observational studies, in depth analysis of a variety of artists and will also show sound development and refinement skills on the theme of Surrealism. This should be the strongest unit with students linking the theme of personal identity to serialism. AQA GCSE A01, AO2 & AO3 assessment criteria.
Summer

Serialist Identity, GCSE

Component 1: Surrealism balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. The movement's artists find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional. Students will plan their own surrealist landscape for their final surrealist piece.
Students will learn how to answer an exam question in the true allotted time under the theme of Surrealism. Students will develop and enhance their practical preparation to create a range of original final pieces, first of which will be a clay serialist sculpture, then a serialist landscape.  Students will develop their skills with a variety of artist media. Students will show their understanding of all the assessment objectives with high quality observational studies, in depth analysis of a variety of artists and will also show sound development and refinement skills on the theme of Surrealism. This should be the strongest unit with students linking the theme of personal identity to serialism. AQA GCSE A01, AO2, AO3 & A04. Assessment criteria.

Year 11 Curriculum plans

Term What are we learning? What Knowledge, Understanding and Skills will we gain? What will excellence look like? How will these be assessed?

Autumn

Surrealist 3D Sculpture. Students will learn independently about various surreal artists. They will continue to develop drawing skills and material use. Students will design a surrealist sculpture and learn how to make a 3D clay sculpture. Students will gain a greater knowledge of the work of the Surrealist artists. Students will learn clay modelling techniques. Excellently presented sketchbook pages demonstrating an understanding of the surrealist art movement and the work of the surrealist artists. A creatively presented 3D design that is made with confidence and has an element of fine detail. Students will be assessed on their finished painted clay pieces that will be accompanied by their sketchbook work.

Autumn

Students will learn how to compose an original painting that incluedes their 3D clay design within the composition. Students will learn compositional techniques. Students will learn compositional and painting techniques. A confidently painted picture that demonstrates a clear understanding and influence of the surreal artist that they have studied. Students will be assessed on their final painted image against the assessment objective 4 criteria.

Spring

Students will learn about the portraiture of Frida Kahlo. Students will gain knowledge of Frida Kahlos work. Students will gain an understanding of the importance of backgrounds in a painting. Students will obtain knowledge of Symbolism in paintings. A final image that has been painted with confidence. The image will have a likeness to the model and will have a well-planned background. Students work will be assessed against Assessment Objective 4, looking at a clear influence to the work of Frida Kahlo.

Spring

Students will revisit work from their portfolio to improve final pieces. Students will continue to improve their painting and drawing skills. Excellence will be an improved portfolio work that fulfils the criteria for confident and assured work. Students will be assessed against the Assessment Objectives.

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