Art & Design
What is Art and Design?
Art and design is a subject that encompasses both practical skills and contextual understanding through a range of exciting artists, art movements and designers.
Why do we teach Art and Design at HASU?
Art and design teaches students to explore their ideas, thoughts and feeling. It enables an understanding of how to communicate ideas in original and exciting ways which builds confidence and problem solving. It is a subject that develops transferable skills that support so many other subjects, playing a crucial role within STEM and within life skills. In addition to this, it develops an appreciation of art and design, building young people ready to contribute to the culture and creativity of our society.
Art and design encompass our daily lives, from art in galleries, to posters, adverts, graffiti to the design of our award-winning school building. At HASU we want our students to be able to engage with all these aspects and ensure they have a lifelong appreciation of the arts. We want to develop students’ cultural literacy by challenging different ideas within artworks and the artworld. We believe that art is a powerful subject which enables students to make links and a greater understanding of the wider world and their experience of it.
How do we teach Art and Design at HASU at Key Stage 3?
At HASU art and design is taught in our bright and open art studio where students experience projects across different mediums in art such as drawing, painting, print, sculpture, and collage.
Throughout KS3 students complete a series of projects, the foundation of which being the formal elements of art, shape, line, tone, colour, texture, and pattern. Students are exposed to a range of contextual studies enabling them to develop their own artwork through the exploration of different processes and ideas. Our curriculum builds on key skills and ideas, allowing students to experiment with a wide range of materials. Our students are taught how different mediums are effective in supporting their ideas.
Students will explore symbolism within imagery, the impact that changes in society have had on the artworld as well as challenging aspects of art history. Developing our students to have the confidence to express and present their ideas and opinions in thoughtful and meaningful ways.
Our students develop an understanding of working as an artist, but we ensure they experience where this subject can take them in their futures. The summer term for each year group is an amalgamation of the knowledge they have gained throughout the year with a different career as a focus. Students contextualise and implement the skills and ideas they have developed within architecture, graphic design, print design.
How do we teach Fine Art at HASU at Key Stage 4?
Students will have the option of studying Fine Art at GCSE as part of our broad and balanced Key stage 4 curriculum. At key stage 4, students develop their artistic practice through four themes, Natural forms, Reflection, Identity and an externally set theme by the exam board.
Within these themes’ students develop their own personal responses through experimentation of different mediums and media, research of exciting artists and craft makers and self-assessment. Throughout the 2-year course students document their artist journey through their sketchbooks with both visual and annotated ideas, enabling them to develop a personal response at the end of each project. In a Key Stage 4 Fine Art lesson students are exposed to a range of processes, linking to a great artist or craft maker. Each student will work on their individual ideas, focusing on the process they wish to experiment with.
What exam board do we study at Key Stage 4?
Students studying Fine Art at HASU follow the Edexcel Specification.
This Specification can be found here.
