At West Minster Primary School we believe Art and Design should engage, inspire and challenge children, providing them with the knowledge and expertise to experiment, design and create their own works of art, skills and design. We are extremely proud of all of our children’s art work and it is widely displayed around the school, on displays and in exhibitions, showcasing our children’s creativity and brilliance.

Like all areas of the curriculum at West Minster, art is an inclusive subject that ensures every child is able to access the high quality resources and learning opportunities we are able to offer. We aim to link our art lessons in a cross curricular way, always striving to provide unique and exciting educational and cultural opportunities.  We ensure that at West Minster, arts and culture is taught in a variety of ways. We have termly hook days, where we collaborate with our federated school, in which we dedicate to immersing the children in their topic learning through a range of different artistic experiences. Topics covered include ancient Greece, Romans, WW2, China, Stonehenge, Harry Potter, the Suffragettes and more. Each year group have created an A3 sketch book to evidence all the wonderful arts opportunities the children are lucky enough to participate in 🙂

We have several links and collaborations with other local schools on our island. We plan and teach a range of creative subjects with other experienced teachers from Rose Street, and have strong connections with The Oasis Academy, our local Platinum Artsmark School. We use their impressive arts facilities, and have often enjoyed being part of their audience at performances. We have attended the Arts Festival, hosted by The Oasis, for three years running, participating in creative workshops, and showcasing our own achievements. Fingers crossed for a wonderful festival again in 2021!

During their time at West Minster, pupils will learn and develop a range of skills and it is these skills that underpin our approach to art- given children the freedom and opportunity to explore a range of artistic techniques and apply them in creative and imaginative ways.

Aims and objectives

• To make art and design an enjoyable experience, by giving children the opportunity to undertake a balanced programme of art/craft/design activities which clearly build on previous work and take account of previous achievements
• To be given opportunities to work individually, in groups and as a whole class; in two and three dimensions, and a variety of scales
• To develop imagination and careful observation by looking closely at the world around us
• To develop skills – intellectual and technical, associated with investigating and making, including the appropriate use of I.C.T
• To develop children’s ability to articulate and communicate ideas, opinions and feelings about their own work and that of others

The school is currently completing the nationally accredited Artsmark award for a second time. We previously gained our Silver award, and are now currently working towards becoming a recognised gold ArtsMark school.