Art and Design Curriculum

Engagement. Creativity. Enjoyment. Pride.

We aim to provide our children with the essential skills and knowledge they need to create; drawings, paintings, prints, sculptures, clay work and textiles.

A variety of techniques and media are used to provide a broad and balanced art curriculum. Time for exploration and experiences are highly valued as a means of enabling children to feel they can take risks whilst developing skills and preferences. Some blocks of work focus more on process and others use this time and exploration to feed into a final outcome.

Over their time at Newlaithes Nursery and Infant School, the children will work collaboratively and independently in art.

Not all art can be or should be controlled, happy accidents can happen such as when dying fabric or using watercolours and salt. Being open to this and making new discoveries is part of the excitement of art. We aim for our children to build confidence through their experiences and to feel a sense of pride. Our children are encouraged to talk about their art, how it makes them feel as well as that of famous artists.

All of that being said, art is so much more than knowledge and skills, it is about being creative and the pleasure that can bring and give others. It can provide headspace or total absorption.

We are on a learning journey together.

We have a link with local business Linton Tweed. They have been making beautiful cloth in their factory here in Carlisle, since 1912. They have kindly donated some of their woven fabric to us and supplied us with photographs from the factory floor. We have taken pieces of this cloth apart to find out how many yarns were used and to see the variety of these. We have also used strips of this cloth to weave with to add texture and the wow factor to our own weaving. 

The children have been able to see the commercial side of weaving including the different machines, processes and final products, all thanks to Linton Tweed.