Art & Design
What makes us stop and look? Why can the same artwork make two people feel something completely different?
At Sikh Heritage Girls School, Art & Design teaches girls to look closely, think visually and develop the technical confidence to communicate ideas of their own.
Pupils learn that artists make deliberate choices. Colour, line, form, texture, scale, composition, material and subject can create atmosphere, communicate identity, preserve memory, provoke questions or evoke powerful emotional responses. Girls learn to notice these choices, discuss their effect and consider how they might inform their own work. Our curriculum is designed in-house and gives equal importance to making art, understanding art and learning how to talk about art. Technical skill develops alongside knowledge of artists, movements and traditions from Britain and across the world.
As pupils move through SHGS, we expect their work to become more controlled, thoughtful and individual. They experiment, revisit ideas and learn to explain why they have made particular artistic choices rather than simply working towards an attractive finished piece.
Intent
Our curriculum develops practical skill, visual knowledge and artistic judgement together. Girls experience drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, textiles, sculpture, mixed media and three-dimensional work, with digital processes used where they genuinely extend artistic possibilities. Important techniques are revisited so that control and confidence build over time.
Alongside this practical work, pupils develop a broad visual and art-historical vocabulary. Across their time at SHGS, they encounter movements including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Modernism and contemporary art, while exploring artistic traditions from Britain, Europe, Punjab, India, South Asia and the wider world.
Traditional Indian portraiture and miniature traditions may sit alongside European portraiture; sculpture alongside painting and print; textiles, pattern and decorative arts alongside modern and contemporary practice. Girls learn that artists working in different times and places have used materials, techniques and conventions in very different ways.
The purpose is not simply to recognise a style or remember an artist's name. Pupils consider what artists were trying to achieve, what influenced them and how technique, context and artistic choices shaped the work.
Implementation
Foundations in EYFS
Artistic exploration begins in Reception. Children draw from observation and imagination, mix colours, paint, print, collage, construct, model and manipulate materials such as clay. Frequent access to different tools and media helps them discover what materials can do and develop increasing control.
Adults introduce technique and useful artistic vocabulary while allowing children genuine freedom to explore. Outcomes are not expected to look identical.
Young children also begin learning how to look at art. They notice colours, shapes, textures, expressions and details, talk about what an image or object makes them think or feel, and begin to recognise that another person may respond differently. These early experiences establish habits that continue throughout the school: close observation, curiosity about materials, experimentation and willingness to talk about visual choices.
Developing artistic skill
Technical skill is taught deliberately and revisited. Girls learn how pressure changes a drawn line, how tone creates form, how colours interact, how paint behaves on different surfaces and how printmaking processes produce different effects. They learn to manipulate textiles and mixed media and to select techniques according to what they are trying to achieve.
Sculpture and three-dimensional work form an important part of this progression. Pupils work with materials such as clay, card, wire, found and constructed materials, considering form, mass, balance, texture, space and viewpoint. They learn that experiencing a three-dimensional artwork involves moving around it and seeing how it occupies space, not simply viewing one flat image of it.
As pupils mature, greater technical control gives them more choice. Earlier learning about colour, line, form, texture and composition can be drawn upon in later and more ambitious work rather than being taught afresh in isolated units.
Sketchbooks as places for thinking
Sketchbooks are working spaces. Girls use them to observe, draw, collect visual references, test materials, practise techniques, annotate decisions and respond to artists. They are also places where an idea can be tried, rejected, altered and returned to.
As pupils become older, their sketchbooks reveal more of the thinking behind a finished work. They compare possibilities, record influences, refine compositions and consider how experimentation has changed the direction of an idea. A sketchbook is therefore not expected to be a polished display book. Its value lies in showing observation, experimentation, reflection and development.
Looking, feeling and critiquing
Learning how to look is an important part of Art & Design at SHGS. From the earliest years, girls are encouraged to spend time with an artwork before deciding whether they like it. They notice details, consider the response it creates and begin to explain what in the artwork has contributed to that feeling.
As their artistic vocabulary grows, pupils discuss colour, line, tone, texture, form, scale, composition, symbolism, material and subject with increasing precision. They learn that emotional response can be examined rather than merely stated.
When older pupils study Edvard Munch, for example, they do more than reproduce a recognisable style. They consider how distortion, line, colour and composition can create tension or unease. When exploring Impressionism, they consider light, colour and visible brushwork; through Cubism, they encounter fragmented form and multiple viewpoints. These ideas then become material for pupils' own experimentation rather than instructions to copy an artist.
Critique develops alongside this knowledge. Girls learn to discuss their own work and the work of others thoughtfully, identifying what is effective and explaining why. Different interpretations are welcomed, but pupils are expected to support them through close observation and relevant artistic knowledge.
This moves discussion well beyond “I like it”.
Art across cultures and traditions
Our curriculum deliberately introduces pupils to artistic disciplines and traditions from different parts of the world. Girls may encounter traditional Indian portraiture and miniature painting, Punjabi and South Asian visual culture, pattern and textile traditions, Islamic geometric art, British and European portraiture, major artistic movements and contemporary global practice.
These are not presented as disconnected examples of “diverse art”. Pupils consider the context in which work was made, what purpose it served, which materials and conventions were used and how those choices compare with artistic practices encountered elsewhere. This gives girls a broader understanding of what art can be and avoids presenting one tradition as the standard against which all others are measured.
Art in galleries and in the world
Encountering original art is a regular part of pupils' artistic education.
Girls visit galleries, exhibitions, community arts spaces and pop-ups, including the National Portrait Gallery and without SHAPE without FORM HQ in Slough. These experiences are part of the curriculum rather than simply enrichment. Pupils learn to slow down in front of an original work, notice scale, surface, material and detail, discuss how work has been displayed and curated, and use sketchbooks to capture observations and responses.
At the National Portrait Gallery, portraiture allows girls to consider identity, expression, pose, symbolism and the choices artists make when representing another person. At without SHAPE without FORM HQ, pupils can encounter contemporary artistic practice close to home, including work rooted in Sikh philosophical ideas and expressed through forms such as painting, textiles, film and installation.
Local exhibitions and temporary pop-ups are equally valuable. They help girls understand that art is not confined to famous national collections; artists are making and exhibiting work within the communities around them.
Equity in the arts
Every girl is entitled to a rich artistic education. At SHGS, equity means access to good materials, explicit teaching of technique, significant artists and artistic traditions, gallery experiences and serious artistic discussion. A pupil should not need prior experience, private tuition or access to galleries outside school in order to flourish.
Where additional support is required, teachers adapt tools, processes or the stages within a task while retaining the artistic thinking and creative possibility at its heart.
By the upper years, pupils are expected to work with growing independence: selecting media more thoughtfully, using sketchbooks to develop ideas, applying techniques with greater control and making reasoned artistic decisions of their own.
Assessment
Assessment considers both what pupils know and how their artistic practice is developing. Teachers consider control of materials and techniques, observational skill, knowledge of artists and traditions, use of artistic vocabulary and the way ideas develop through sketchbooks and practical work.
A successful outcome is not judged simply by neatness or visual appeal. We are interested in whether pupils have looked closely, experimented purposefully, applied what they have learned and made thoughtful artistic decisions. Critique and conversation therefore matter alongside the artwork itself.
Impact
By the time girls leave SHGS, we want them to have the technical foundations, visual knowledge and confidence to make art with increasing independence and purpose.
They should be comfortable working across two- and three-dimensional disciplines and understand how elements such as colour, line, form, texture, composition and scale can be manipulated to create different effects.
They should recognise important artistic movements and traditions and understand that art has developed differently across cultures, periods and places.
When standing in front of an unfamiliar artwork, pupils should know how to look. They should be able to notice, question, interpret and discuss how the work has been made, what choices the artist has made and why it evokes a particular response.
We want girls who are technically capable, visually curious, willing to experiment and confident enough to develop an artistic voice of their own.
Research-Informed Practice
Our curriculum reflects the National Curriculum's expectation that pupils become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques; evaluate and analyse creative work using appropriate language; and develop knowledge of significant artists, craftspeople and designers.
Ofsted's art and design research similarly describes a strong art education as both intellectually challenging and creatively demanding, bringing together making, knowledge of art and the ability to view and discuss it thoughtfully.
Our approach to gallery learning reflects the same emphasis on close looking and visual literacy. The National Portrait Gallery's primary programme explicitly develops pupils' enquiry, visual-literacy and creative skills through encounters with portraits past and present.
Selected References
Department for Education. National Curriculum in England: Art and Design Programmes of Study.
Ofsted. Research Review Series: Art and Design.
Department for Education. Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework.
National Portrait Gallery. Primary education and visual literacy resources.
