The secondary curriculum review
Art and design offers pupils to develop their creativity by using a range of skills in a wide variety of contexts. They are able to communicate and express their ideas and feelings through visual and other forms. Through exploring and sharing these ideas, they will develop confidence and independence in learning. This is essential to becoming a successful learner who enjoys learning, makes progress and achieves.
Through exploring and developing ideas and assessing work critically, pupils reflect on and analyse not only the world around them, but their own work and the work of others. Pupils' experience of new technologies helps them develop the skills to investigate alternative ways of working. They learn to value the learning process as a key part of their creative experiences.
Through art, craft and design pupils become open to the excitement and inspiration offered by both the natural and made worlds. By engaging in purposeful, imaginative and creative activity pupils learn to take managed risks, trying out new ideas and ways of working without fear of failure. Through a range of processes, including drawing perceptively and creatively, they observe and investigate the world around them, inventing and visualising with increasing independence and ambition. Through allowing work to be driven by imagination, experience and issues in the real world they learn to explore and interpret ideas and emotions, and develop understanding of others. By developing and using sets of values to evaluate their own and others' work, they are able to increase confidence in their own opinions, feelings of self-worth and their ability to relate to others.
Investigations in art, craft and design help pupils to appreciate the diversity of ideas and approaches to conveying meaning. They learn to understand, respect, value and engage with not only their own cultures and traditions, but those of others. They learn that through their creative contributions it is possible to change things for the better. Working in the areas of art, craft and design, and in applied practices, promotes an enterprising culture and develops pupils' ability to work collaboratively with others by taking different roles in teams. Their understanding and appreciation of fine art, design and craft will enrich and contribute to their current and future lives.
