The Art Curriculum at Higham Lane North Academy

At HLNA, our ambitious curriculum in Art is designed to ensure that students know more, remember more and can do more in Art over time. We understand learning as a change in long-term memory, and therefore our Art curriculum is carefully sequenced and deliberately structured to secure knowledge so that it is retained and applied with confidence.

A central principle of our approach is the management of cognitive load. By presenting new material in Art explicitly, modelling thinking clearly, and breaking learning into manageable components, we ensure that students can focus on what matters most. This enables learning to be both accessible and memorable.

Our classroom practice in Art is underpinned by consistent and explicit routines that support long-term retention. Knowledge booklets promote equity and entitlement: every student has access to the most powerful knowledge within Art. These booklets enable students to pre-learn, revisit and over-learn key content, strengthening retrieval and embedding learning securely in long-term memory.

Every Art lesson begins with structured retrieval practice to activate prior knowledge and strengthen memory pathways. Art resources are organised consistently to reduce extraneous cognitive load, allowing students to focus on learning rather than process.   Oracy routines are embedded to ensure that students can articulate ideas clearly, use subject-specific vocabulary in Art precisely, and engage in purposeful academic discussion.

We use dual coding and carefully designed, dyslexia-friendly visual materials in Art to enhance clarity and accessibility. Whole-class reading routines ensure that all students engage with ambitious texts, while explicit vocabulary instruction builds disciplinary fluency. Our ‘green pens for growth’ routine ensures that students actively respond to feedback in every lesson, promoting reflection and improvement.

Formative assessment in Art is continuous and responsive. Daily questioning, low-stakes quizzing and structured checks for understanding enable teachers to identify misconceptions and adapt teaching accordingly. Whole-class feedback strategies support self and peer assessment, fostering independence while maintaining high expectations.

Alongside regular summative assessments in Art, synoptic assessments are built into every year group to evaluate cumulative knowledge. This ensures that learning is not episodic but enduring. Through systematic retrieval over time, we minimise cognitive overload and maximise the likelihood that students remember and can apply what they have learned.

As a result, our Art curriculum is coherent, knowledge-rich and carefully sequenced — ensuring that all students make strong progress and are fully prepared for the next stage of their education.

At HLNA, everyone is included and everyone belongs. This commitment is reflected in our inclusive classroom practice in Art, where all students are supported, challenged and valued as learners. We create an environment in Art where diversity is respected, barriers to learning are reduced, and every student has the opportunity to succeed.

Our values are lived out daily through our students, who strive to be conscientious, compassionate and confident in all aspects of their learning in Art. These qualities underpin our culture of high expectations and mutual respect within our Art classrooms.   We are proud of our environment in Art because we always do what is right — demonstrating integrity, responsibility and care for one another in both our learning and with each other.

Over time in Art, students will learn about a wide range of artistic practices that encourage both technical skills and creative exploration. Students will learn the key substantive knowledge of Art through the study of traditional fine art genres: still life, landscape, and portraiture. These foundational genres are revisited across Key Stage Three to build depth, historical awareness and cultural understanding. Students explore the work of a diverse range of artists, craftspeople and designers including Michael Craig Martin, Claude Monet, and Leonardo da Vinci in Year 7, before developing this knowledge further through artists such as Clara Peeters, Pablo Picasso, and Katsushika Hokusai in Year 8, and Sarah Graham, Kehinde Wiley, and J.M.W. Turner in Year 9. Through this, students gain knowledge of formal elements line, tone, colour, texture, and composition, as well as understanding Art in its historical and cultural contexts.

In Art, students develop their disciplinary knowledge by working as artists: generating ideas, recoding observations, and developing and refining outcomes. Students learn to draw, paint, and sculpt with increasing control and intentionality, using a range of media and techniques such as tonal pencils, plaster of paris, watercolour paint, and collage. Students will be able to analyse and interpret the work of artists, make informed creative decisions, and evaluate their own artwork. Through repeated practice across still life, landscape, and portraiture, students build fluency in visual language and the ability to think critically and creatively within the discipline.

Our ambitious curriculum provides so much ambitious enrichment. For instance, students have the opportunity to engage with artwork outside the classroom during the Year 7 Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery trip, students take part in art competitions (both in school and beyond), attend our co-curricular art club, and cross-curricular activities linking Art with their other curriculum subjects for World Art Day.

There are so many careers that are linked to our subject that we discuss throughout Key Stage Three, and these include: working as a graphic designer or professional artist, exploring roles in animation or videogame design, working in architecture or interior design, education roles, art conservation, and curation in museums and galleries. Creative subjects like Art and Design Technology develop transferable skills such as creative thinking, problem-solving, and visual communication, which are valuable skills in all careers. They also build fine motor skills, precision, and attention to detail, which are essential for careers such as medicine and dentistry, where accuracy and control are crucial. By exploring these career pathways, students will understand how their creative skills can lead to a range of exciting professional opportunities, helping them to see the real-world relevance of what they are learning in the classroom and how this can lead to a wide range of future pathways.

Miss April Quigley

Curriculum Leader for Art and Design Technology

Please find below the curriculum maps for the following subject. Each map provides an overview of the key topics, skills, and learning objectives covered throughout the academic year, helping students and parents understand the progression of learning within each subject area.