At St James, we are using the AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum, which is designed to inspire and enable high quality visual arts teaching and learning, while meeting the needs of the current National Curriculum for Art. Designed around the idea that art is far more than a series of technical skills, our holistic curriculum nurtures creative thinking skills and helps ensure our pupils learn through art, as well as about art. 

We need art more than ever, and through creating opportunities for pupils to explore many different aspects of making, we develop an understanding of the ways art connects us with our past, helps us embrace the present and empowers us to shape our future. By exploring why art is relevant to all our lives, we aim to make certain that pupils feel entitled to develop their creativity, and understand their place in the world as creative, confident beings.

The AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum is knowledge-rich, and our pupils will learn a wide range of skills, developing understanding and showing clear progression. The children will develop technical and factual knowledge as well as, building self-knowledge and nurturing traits in learners, which will hold them in good stead whichever direction their learning takes them.

Our aim is to provide our pupils with a range of different opportunities and experiences (media, techniques, approaches, artists), to ensure that every child has the opportunity to find the elements of art, craft & design which resonate for them.