Curriculum Aims

Kapow Primary’s Art and design scheme of work aims to nurture pupils’ creativity, imagination and visual literacy, encouraging them to think like artists and designers. The intention is for pupils to develop the confidence to experiment, express ideas and communicate meaning through visual and tactile media.

The scheme promotes an appreciation of art as a powerful form of human expression, helping pupils to understand its role across different cultures, time periods and creative industries. It encourages children to value originality, take creative risks and reflect critically on their own work and that of others.

The scheme supports teachers in developing their subject knowledge and pedagogical confidence, enabling the delivery of rich, engaging and purposeful lessons. The curriculum is designed to be both inclusive and ambitious, ensuring all pupils are equipped to enjoy, create and respond to art in meaningful ways.

Spiral Curriculum

The Kapow Primary Art and design curriculum has been designed as a spiral curriculum with the following key principles in mind:

• Cyclical – pupils return to the key knowledge and skills again and again in different contexts during their time in primary school.
• Increasing depth – each time a skill is revisited, it is covered with greater complexity.
• Prior knowledge – prior knowledge is utilised so pupils can build upon previous foundations rather than starting again.

This approach reinforces knowledge and skills over time, supporting pupils in building confidence, refining their techniques and developing a deeper, more personal understanding of art. It enables them to make connections across units, draw on prior learning and apply it creatively in new contexts.

Key areas

The National curriculum refers to pupils developing their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture.

To support this, Kapow Primary’s Art and design curriculum returns to these three key areas in every year group.

The curriculum includes a fourth key area: Craft and design. This area focuses on giving pupils a broad range of opportunities to explore different craft and design techniques during primary school.

It is important that all pupils see themselves reflected in the curriculum and are introduced to a broad range of artists, styles and cultural traditions.

A diverse art curriculum helps to challenge stereotypes, build respect for different perspectives and celebrate the richness of human creativity across time and place.

Kapow Primary’s Art and design curriculum aims to achieve this by:

• Including artists from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures and time periods throughout the units (see the List of artists document).
• Exploring different forms of art beyond the Western canon, including textiles, craft, sculpture, body art and architecture from around the world.
• Ensuring that the voices, stories and techniques of both contemporary and historical artists are represented.
• Encouraging pupils to respond personally and respectfully to art from cultures that may be different from their own.

This approach helps pupils build a more complete understanding of art as a global, evolving and inclusive subject.

Impact

Formative

Kapow Primary’s Art and design lessons include ongoing assessment opportunities, such as questioning, retrieval practice and interactive activities. These enable teachers to assess understanding in real time and adapt their teaching accordingly.

Summative

Each unit provides an Assessment quiz, which allow teachers to measure pupils’ understanding at key points. This tool helps gauge how well pupils have retained key knowledge and skills over time.

Adaptive Teaching

The Kapow Primary Art and design scheme of work is designed to be fully adaptable for pupils with SEND. Every lesson includes an adaptive teaching section, providing clear guidance on how activities can be modified to meet the needs of all learners.

Children learn in a variety of ways. As such, Kapow Primary Art lessons include a range of strategies to support and challenge every pupil, such as:

Scaffolding – activities are designed with flexibility in mind, allowing for additional support or challenge where needed.

Multi-sensory approaches – lessons incorporate different elements to engage all learners.

Clear instructions and structured tasks – ensuring clarity and reducing cognitive load for pupils who benefit from additional support.

Opportunities for collaborative and independent learning – allowing pupils to work at their own pace while building confidence and independence.

By embedding adaptive teaching throughout, the scheme ensures that all pupils, regardless of their starting points, can access and succeed in their learning.

In addition, the step-by-step curriculum design supports pupils with SEND, avoiding sudden jumps in complexity at transition points and allowing for steady, manageable progression.