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Making connections in art, craft and design


Susan Coles Creativity, arts and educational consultant and artist


One of the best things about teaching art, craft and design is that there is so much choice. It is also important to remember that we teach art AND craft AND design and that a successful art curriculum will involve all of these. We should build assessment through four different skills.


Generating ideas: Skills of designing and developing ideas


Making: Skills of making art, craft and design


Evaluating: Skills of judgement and evaluation


Knowledge: Acquiring and applying knowledge to inform progress


To read more about this and key stage related expectations, please visit: http://www.nsead.org/curriculum–resources/england.aspx


These four skills also relate to the work that children will do when they make the move to key stage 3 and 4, so embedding them in the primary curriculum is important. They are also skills which are transferable across curriculum areas which employers tell us they want the current and future workforce to have. These have been identified as collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity (Partnership for 21st Century Learning).


There are so many other generic school learning areas which can be covered by the art curriculum. Personal, social, and health education (PSHE), spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC), literacy and numeracy, for example can all be taught through art, craft and design.


Art should also be taught through expressive and personal work created individually, in small group/pair work, and in larger group scenarios. Many of our leading architectural and design environments in the world of work have ‘open doors’ or open plan spaces, where people ‘hot seat’ and work together in groups, small and large.


One of the most important aspects of the curriculum is drawing. Drawing is often interpreted as drawing from observation. That is important yes, but drawing has other purposes and it is very important that teachers and children understand those. Drawing is also important in many jobs, not just those in the creative and cultural industries, for example surgeons use drawing, engineers use drawing.


This free download from NSEAD is a very helpful guide for teachers: http://www.nsead.org/resources/tea/Drawing_to_ Learn.pdf


06 Sketchbook from Gomersal Primary School


Schools can benefit too from looking at the work of the Big Draw and taking part in the annual celebration of drawing. This can really help children to see drawing as a tool for learning in all curriculum areas. Details here: http://www.thebigdraw.org/


Drawing can have a purpose if used for perception, for invention, for communication and for action. The sketchbook is very important to this and it is also a place where children can record their ideas, their thinking, their evaluations, their experimentation, their individuality. Don’t treat the sketchbook in the same way that you treat an exercise book. Marking and feedback should be in response to the creative activities of drawing, ideas and design work, rather than to writing. Sketchbooks should be exciting to look at, touch and feel, and are central to good practice.


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