Art & Design Technology
Art & Design
What is this curriculum trying to achieve, and how does this relate to our overall aims and ethos?
At Lyminster Primary School we believe our art, craft and design curriculum will engage, inspire and challenge all pupils. Through interesting and varied projects, we aim to develop in them the skills and knowledge needed to experiment, invent and create their own works of art. Children are introduced to a range of techniques and materials to extend their creative potential, exploring their own styles and ideas. As pupils progress through our school, they will become more analytical about their own artwork and that of others. The aim is for all children to appreciate the role that art has played throughout history and within all cultures. We wish for them to see the potential power of art- for change, for good. Our hope is that the children’s experience of art at Lyminster will inspire children to be themselves and see that difference is to be celebrated. To have the chance to work creatively and express themselves provides a valuable outlet for stress and anxiety. Through art, the children can learn that success is subjective and that different types of art are down to the taste of the individual. In essence, ANYONE CAN BE AN ARTIST.
How is the curriculum actually implemented - how do we ensure progression, retention, and what does teaching and learning in this subject actually 'look' like?
Based upon the National Curriculum, we have developed our own individualised school art curriculum. This is linked to class topics where appropriate. The curriculum has been designed to introduce children to a variety of skills and techniques but also about a wide range of artists, art movements and art history. Children are given opportunities to discuss and justify their thoughts, and debate is encouraged, for example, in Year 5 when discussing expressionist art, the children are encouraged to talk about how they think the artist is feeling but also what impact pieces have on them as the viewer
Our curriculum is carefully sequenced. This takes the form of: exploring and developing ideas, evaluating and developing work then the different strands of drawing, painting, printing, textiles/collage and 3D form. The youngest children begin with more exploration through continuous provision where they will experience all of the strands through carefully designed activities. As they move up through the school, the children will be given time to practise different techniques and skills after modelling by the teacher or other visuals. By the time they reach upper school, they are expected to be able draw upon a wider range of knowledge and techniques. This will enable them to create their own pieces with more freedom of choice over the medium and techniques. The children will be encouraged to develop their own style. This will include lots of experimentation, that should be evident in sketchbooks.
Children’s retention of knowledge and skills is supported through discussion and recapping. Children have opportunities to re-visit artists. Artworks are displayed and celebrated to also support the children in retaining knowledge – our children’s artworks can be seen across the school from units of work they have completed. We also have ‘Culture Vulture’ assemblies once a week which are also a way of supporting this learning. Children also have their own ‘mini sketchbooks’ which they have complete ownership over and can practise drawing techniques learnt in lessons.
How is the curriculum adapted to meet the needs of different children, groups of children, particulary those with SEND?
Art is a subject that is accessible to everyone allowing SEND children, EAL and gifted and talented to access the curriculum at their own level. Art is a skill that children can continue throughout their lives.
However, some children may benefit from further group/one to one discussion before starting a task, particularly where the teacher or an adult can model certain ways of thinking by ‘wondering aloud’; they may also benefit from ‘bouncing around’ ideas with peers for longer. Sentence stems, oral rehearsal and scaffolding may be needed for analytical, written art tasks. Some children may need an adult to scribe their ideas about artworks, artists or art movements.
Some children will be encouraged to explain their ideas in more depth, including through making links with prior knowledge and experiences. Children who are identified as gifted and talented in this area or who have a particular interest, are included in further workshops with specific teachers where skills are taught and practised. They will have further experiences with artists, creating using various mediums and for a purpose, usually linking with the community. For example, groups have been able to work with an artist on a community project where the final pieces were displayed in the locality. The aim is to encourage their talent, their interest and their passion and that it is clear: we value this as a school.
How is progress against, and retention of, this curriculum assessed? How are any gaps in learning then addressed?
Our Art units of work offer opportunities to assess the children’s skills, understanding and knowledge. Where gaps in learning are identified, these are then followed up with the whole class, or with groups or individuals, ideally in the moment through teacher intervention or plenary, or alternatively in subsequent lessons. In the Spring Term, all parents receive a report where every child is given a judgement of their attainment and effort within Art.
Teachers’ professional judgement is based on the learning objectives for each lesson based on which teachers can make a series of ‘can they/can’t they’ judgements formatively, by comparing the objectives with the children’s responses to the tasks. The Art leader will monitor learning across all year groups through moderations, book looks, discussions with the children and teachers.
Lyminster Art Gallery
At Lyminster we have our very own art gallery where the children’s own work is displayed and celebrated. These pieces are mainly created by children in their own time and can be anything! Our gallery shows the children that everyone can be an artist, art is varied but very personal. Art can inspire others in many different ways, can invoke emotions and provoke discussions.
We want our pupils at Lyminster to talk about art, to feel confident to experiment and have a go – that there is not a ‘right’ way to draw, paint and create. That there are skills we can learn and practise to help us create art but ultimately, we want our pupils to experience enjoyment and pride in their own works and be able to talk about them with enthusiasm and knowledge.
The beginnings of our gallery… to be expanded very soon.

Some of our art-based projects:
Lyminster were proud to be a part of a local art project in collaboration with Southern Water, the RNLI and Littlehampton Museum. This involved various local schools creating artwork around the theme of water safety and water pollution. We had special assemblies in school where the children learnt all about these topics. We also took part in a competition run by Southern Water to design posters to go on signs that will be displayed in our locality along water edges. We were so proud that one of our pupils WON! Another four pupils also got highly commended.
Our beautiful artwork was exhibited at The Littlehampton Museum along with a spoken poem as created by Year 4 that was played into the exhibition space.



Remembrance Day 2023
We are lucky to be involved in an exciting exhibition at Littlehampton Museum which brings the worlds of Science and Art together called ‘Plastics’. All the plastic bottle Remembrance Poppies our children created last year are taking centre stage in the gallery as it opened on Remembrance day. Even the new reception children made some which have been added to the display – it’s a whole school collaborative piece of art! Our wonderful poppy art, as organised by Mrs Washington, will be on display until February.
Arts Week 2023
Mrs Washington put together a wonderful exhibition with the curator at Littlehampton Museum where some of our wonderful art work produced by EYFS and KS1 during Arts Week was displayed. They created postcards of Littlehampton as well as collages and bunting inspired by the sea. Gifted & Talented artists in KS2 also had their detailed observational drawings and paintings of seashells on display.
Christmas 2022
Our Gifted and Talented artists and other selected children got the opportunity to work with Isobel Smith again on another community project. Their final large piece was displayed in the town centre as part of the Christmas celebrations. The children also got to make their own small pieces.
Some of our children also created Christmas baubles to go on the trees in Kamson’s Chemists, Angmering and Littlehampton and book review baubles were designed, made and displayed on the tree in Littlehampton Library.


Autumn 2022
Our pupils were lucky enough to be able to work with Nadia Chalk and Nessy Breen from Creative Waves (www.creativewaves.co.uk) on a whole school project! EVERY single child took part and joined in with creating a large piece of artwork to enhance the entrance to our school and create an inspiring and colourful welcome! The children were all excited to see the finished results in situ.

Design Technology








Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. It should enable children to be creative, innovative and work through problems. At Lyminster we have designed our curriculum to allow children to learn and practise key skills from cutting, sawing and joining to sewing. Throughout their time at Lyminster, our children get to engage with a range of units of work that will involve them working on construction based projects, textiles and food technology.
What is this curriculum trying to achieve, and how does this relate to our overall aims and ethos?
We believe Design and Technology stimulates creativity and imagination through problem solving and the production of quality products. It is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject that enables children to work through problems, developing resilience. Our projects will link to their own immediate lives and the community e.g. In Year 5, designing and making a CAM toy for EYFS children. But also making links to the wider world such as when the children create their class country inspired dishes for our whole school ‘Restaurant Wars’. This not only teaches skills and knowledge but expands the children’s horizons, something that as a school we have identified as much needed.
How is the curriculum actually implemented- how do we ensure progression, retention, and what does teaching and learning actually 'look' like in this subject?
Based upon the National Curriculum, we have developed our own individualised school Design and Technology curriculum. D & T projects will, by their nature, be cross curricular, involving Mathematics, Science and English amongst other wider curriculum subjects. Projects at Lyminster are usually linked to a current topic/ area of study/another subject or relate to creating products for a specific audience. As well as learning a range of subject knowledge, including cookery, design and technology will allow pupils to become resourceful, innovative and enterprising plus practise other skills such as measuring, reading and writing instructions. Pupils will evaluate the past and present use of D.T., develop an understanding of the practical impact of the subject on the modern world and, of course evaluate their own products, making changes as they go.
The curriculum is carefully sequenced as seen below. It is separated into the strands of: Design, Make and Technical knowledge, Evaluate and a separate strand for Cooking and Nutrition.
We want to ensure:
- ~ Children have the opportunity to be creative and use their imagination
- ~ Children are to design and make products for a purpose
- ~ Children have the opportunity to design, discuss and make products that solve problems
- ~ Children are taught and get to practise key skills required
- ~ Children realise that it is a PROCESS- they will make mistakes and come across problems but that they should try to solve these and work around them (this is a major focus)
Retention of the curriculum is promoted through discussion and recapping where the teacher can prompt the children on prior learning and make links explicit. The children will have opportunities to re-visit and build upon skills. An example would be within textiles, where they will learn how to sew with specific stitches and, higher up the school they will have the opportunity to use these stitches again. They will then build upon these with other types of stitching plus ways of reinforcing fabrics (Year 6 Bags for Life). Products are displayed and shared across the school to also support retaining knowledge. If made for a specific audience, they are shared with that audience and feedback taken, aiding evaluations which may feed into future projects
How is the curriculum adapted to meet the needs of different children and groups of children, particularly those with SEND?
Design and Technology is a subject that is accessible to everyone, with the right support, allowing SEND children, EAL and gifted and talented to access the curriculum at their own level. Children who find the more academic subjects challenging can thrive in this subject, with certain learning barriers removed. This supports and improves self esteem. Likewise, this can be a subject that really challenges certain children but teaches them to build resilience and that making mistakes is vital to learning and making progress. Adults will need to support these children and guide them more fully when needed.
Teachers should always use modelling to support children’s ideas and to inspire them. Some children may need longer ‘thinking’ time when designing. They may need more ideas to inspire them. Sentence stems, oral rehearsal and scaffolding may be needed for the designing process and when evaluating. Some children may need an adult to scribe their ideas as this should not be a barrier to showing their ideas. Where particular support is identified on ILPs or EHCPs that are applicable across the curriculum, these will also be in place during DT lessons, if necessary.
Some children will be encouraged to explain their ideas in more depth, including through making links with prior knowledge and experiences e.g. ‘I am going to hold the wood and saw in this way as I learnt that in Year 4 and it sawed the wood more smoothly.’ Over time, children should have built up a bank of knowledge and skills from a range of projects that they can refer back to, make comparisons with and continue to be inspired by.
How is progress against, and retention of, this curriculum assessed? How are any gaps in learning then addressed?
Progression in D.T will be assessed through work completed in pupils books, written work, oral comments and observations throughout the process and final products.
D&T units are identified in our long term planning which offer opportunities to assess the children’s skills, understanding and knowledge. Where gaps in learning are identified, these are then followed up with the whole class, or with groups or individuals, ideally in the moment through teacher intervention or plenary, or alternatively in subsequent lessons. In the Spring Term, the teachers make a summative judgement of each child’s level of mastery of the National Curriculum content, which is shared with their parents/carers (annual report).
Teachers’ professional judgement is based on the progression of knowledge, understanding and skills within our progression overview which then give learning objectives for each lesson based on which teachers can make a series of ‘can they/can’t they’ judgements formatively, by comparing the objectives with the children’s responses to the tasks.
Food Technology
At Lyminster all children will get many opportunities to take part in food technology. Children make foods within other class topics but our Lyminster special is our DT focused topic every other year of Restaurant Wars! Classes learn all about the foods and ingredients of their class country and this happily ties in with Geography and Science. Classes then compete to win the restaurant wars with a final special afternoon where they present their dishes in their own ‘restaurant’ to all parents and carers who have been invited and then who vote!





