Many art and design units we teach at Didsbury focus on the local area. In Year 5, the children learn about the different Victorian era architecture we have in the streets and roads close to the school. The children then sketch a Victorian street and include these period features in the houses. After, they finish the homes by painting with watercolour. They also learn about a local photographer, Neil Roland, and complete photography pieces in his style by photographing natural and man-made features in Didsbury before organising them by complementary colours using ICT. We also participate in annual community art projects such as Didsbury Festival and The Didsbury Parsonage Trust’s local art exhibition. Each year, Didsbury Festival set a theme and each participating school create banners, bunting, props or clothing to match this theme. Children are invited to create all elements for the procession during lunchtime art clubs.
The Didsbury Parsonage Trust invite local schools, Didsbury CE being one of these schools, to exhibit artwork in the parsonage building. Different year groups are selected for this each time. The children’s paintings, sketches or collages are mounted, framed and hung on the walls of the parsonage and 3D art, textiles or sculptures are displayed in cabinets. The exhibition is a popular event where families and the wider community come to celebrate the artistic achievements of the children in the local area. It is also in invaluable experience for the children involved as it confirms that they are artists.
A broad and balanced curriculum
Often, Art and Design links either to a Design Technology, Computing, History or Geography unit. This provides an opportunity for the children to explore and develop ideas from first hand observations, learn of significant artists, designers or sculptors in history both from Britain and the wider world.
For example, in Year 3 during their Egypt history topic, children learn about canopic jars and recreate them for 3D art. To support their understanding of sculpture, they study the sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth. Children in all year groups learn how to use computer programs to develop digital media artwork, for example in Year 1 the children learn about the book The Tiger Who Came To Tea and create tigers using 2Simple. In Year 6, children create portraits of notable people from World War II and textile skills are developed in Years 1, 2, 3 and 5 when creating design and technology projects.
