Mrs R Harrison is the subject lead for Art & Design at Cottam.

At Cottam Primary School, we value the importance of Art. We have designed a curriculum for art with the intent that our children will, from the early years, develop a sense of creativity, self-expression, excellence and high attainment.   

The aim of our art curriculum is to ensure that children’s own experiences will result in them being able to use the visual elements of art confidently, in their own work.  It is our intent to provide all children with the fundamental skills, techniques and knowledge needed to independently to create their own unique drawings, paintings, sculptures, and crafts. We equip them with the skills required to learn about the language of art and design. This enables them to describe what they see in detail and to provide evidence for their observations.

We give the children the time and space to explore new themes, new sensations, and ways to be creative without the need to be perfect. At Cottam, we believe that the process takes precedence over the product. We want our children to see the enjoyment and satisfaction in the process of producing art. It is through the children’s personalised experience of art at Cottam, that we enable the children to feel safe, secure, and happy, to produce their most creative work.

GREAT ARTISTS' DAY

We celebrated the work of famous artists from all over the world. The classes teamed up with another year group to explore an artist's work and find out more about their style. We had a special assembly to find out about modern art and different movements over the years. These ranged from Picasso to David Hockney. The hall display showcases all the fantastic work that the children produced in their small groups. Well done everyone!

Reception Classes

The children enjoyed sketching butterflies. They looked carefully at the patterns on the wings. They used a range of sketching pencils and graphite sticks. This was developed further when they drew a large butterfly and used the watercolour paints to add the colours. They learnt how to mix primary colours to make new colours.

WHOLE SCHOOL ART DAY

The whole school celebrated art by exploring a carnival theme. Each class worked alongside a different year group. The children were given a subject ranging from clowns to lions. They worked in small groups using different media. Everyone started the day by sketching in their art books. The children had lots of fun getting creative and working together to talk about their ideas. They were very proud of the finished results!

Egyptians Year 3

As part of their topic work on Egyptians Year 3 all took part in a felting workshop. They learnt all about the process of felting and created their own Egyptian scenes. They were fascinated to discover how wool fibres can be transformed into felt by adding soapy water and rubbing to create friction.  As you can see from the photos, they were delighted with the results!

Dinosaurs

As part of the Dinosaur topic the children used recycled materials to create their own dinosaur. They used cardboard, bottle tops, bubble wrap and scraps of paper. The class talked about the importance of "reuse, recycle and reduce" when using materials in class. All the children were proud of their finished results and each child gave their dinosaur a new name!

WINTER ART ACTIVITIES

Reception classes have all enjoyed making snowflakes and snowmen. The children looked at different patterns on snowflakes and created their own designs using chalk, art straws, cotton buds and pieces of foam. They also enjoyed making snowman; drawing and cutting round shapes carefully. 

YEAR 2 TEXTILES

Year 2 linked their English work and art work. They shared the story "The Way Home for Wilf" and explored the landscapes in the story. The children also created their own landscapes using digital media. The results are very effective!

YEAR 1 SCULPTURE

Year 1 linked their English unit of work to their Art. They had great fun making robots out of clay. The attention to detail was fantastic!

YEAR 3 COLLAGE

Year 3 linked their History topic on The Egyptians to their art work. They explored different techniques to create their Egyptian faces. 

DRAW ALONG

The whole school enjoyed a "draw along" session this morning by Access Art. The artist Rowan Briggs Smith showed us different mark making ideas. We all explored making marks using drawing pencils, pens and graphite sticks. She inspired us with a piece of art by Van Gogh, which led to us trying out lots of ways to fill our paper-dots, swirls, cross hatch, stipple, vertical lines. She told us how to hold our drawing tools in different ways to achieve different effects. We all had great fun-which was the most important thing of all!

Ruth Daniels

Reception classes shared the story Walking Through The Jungle and then looked at the work of the artist Ruth Daniels. They found out how Ruth likes to create and paint tropical, bright pictures with lots of flowers, plants and vibrant colours. The children worked together, on a large scale to produce their own interpretation of a "tropical scene." They used fabrics, cut out their own shapes and thought carefully about the position of each piece. The children then drew, painted and added pastels to their own version of a "Tropical Moment." We love all the bright colours!

WORLD ART DAY

Our whole school celebrated World Art Day by working together and getting creative.

Each class worked with a different year group and our theme was “Nature all around us.”

From bees and honeycombs to dragonflies and butterflies, we sketched and created our own master pieces!

Creating spiders’ webs from branches and wool and making 3D insects was fun for Year 2 and 4!

Year 1 and 3 used newspapers to make creature collages. The rest of their class studied the detail on bugs. Their bugs sit proudly on the painted backgrounds!

Drawing flowers-

Reception classes explored a range of drawing pencils and sketched flowers. They tested out 2B and 6B pencils and used them to draw the outline and detail of real flowers. The children looked carefully at the stems and petals before using the watercolour pencils to fill in detail and create different tones. 

GIANT TREE ART

The Reception classes had fun creating their own giant trees. This was linked to their topic work on the seasons. They selected their own materials and worked as a team to arrange them to making a seasonal tree. 

PETER THORPE-space art.

Reception classes learnt all about the artist Peter Thorpe. They explored images of rockets and designed their own. They experimented with chalk pastels and used their designs to copy on black paper. We used circles to print planets around the rockets. They talked about the terms fill, colour, outline, pastels, shape and spaces.

MONDRIAN-EYFS

The Reception classes learnt all about the artist Mondrian. They learnt the name of the 3 primary colours and cut up strips of paper to create their own style of his work. They worked hard to cut, glue and arrange their strips of black paper. Their challenge was then to decide which blocks to paint!

ANDY GOLDSWORTHY STUDY

In the summer term each class in school studied the work of the artist Andy Goldsworthy.

The gallery of photos show how his work and ideas inspired the children to explore environmental art ideas in natural forms. The children used the school grounds to find natural materials to form part of their designs and work.

The work included-

Land art challenges.

Balancing and stacking stones and slate.

Creating spiral designs.

Outlines and layers in nature.

Hanging sculptures.

Mark making in sand and mud.