Art & Design Technology

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

To build confidence and perseverance, all students from years 7-9 are introduced to the foundational element of the Art & DT curriculum by being introduced to varied and diverse experiences of art craft and design.

Students will be introduced to both physical and conceptual ways of working through exploring relevant traditional and contemporary artists, designers, and practitioners from a range of social and cultural and global backgrounds. The foundational elements of art and craft in Year 7 are built upon through a range of traditional Western techniques, to global practices and contemporary art making.

Year 8 and Year 9 will introduce our students to the global context of art by addressing the gaps in traditional Western art. We introduce this in the foundational study of art in Year 7 through the ‘Worry Doll’ and build on this in our ‘Pop Culture’ and ‘My London.’

At Harris Academy Peckham, we celebrate our cultural diversity, break down barriers and create connections with one another, one unit at a time.

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Materials, techniques and processes

Students need to learn about materials, techniques, and processes, developing skills in the selection and handling of materials, whilst developing knowledge that will support them in forming creative choices as they move through the course towards GCSE.

Drawing is at the heart of this process and dissecting and unpicking traditional concepts of what a drawing is, and broadening students’ conceptions of drawing is the focus of KS3. Whilst in Year 9, students further develop confidence and manual dexterity using materials and processes to communicate their ideas.

All students learn the formal elements throughout KS3 and later go on to refine the skills and techniques in KS4 to master their creativity. The formal elements in Art and Design are the following, form, texture, pattern, line, shape, and tone. These make up an art piece and students revisit this when analysing artists and producing work linked to the following forms:

• Line: the path left by a moving point e.g. pencil or a brush dipped in paint. It can take many forms e.g. horizontal, diagonal, or curved.
• Tone: this means the lightness or darkness of something. This could be a shade or how dark or light a colour appears.
• Texture: the surface quality of something, the way something feels or looks like it feels. There are two types: Actual and Visuals.
• Shape: an area enclosed by a line. It could be just an outline, or it could be shaded in.
• Pattern: a design that is created by repeating lines, shapes, tones, or colours. It can be manmade, like a design on fabric or natural, such as the markings on animal fur.
• Colour: there are 2 types including Primary and Secondary. By mixing any two Primary together we get Secondary.

Further details of the curriculum can be downloaded below.