🎨 Art and Design at Friday Bridge

At Friday Bridge, we believe that every child is an artist. Through use of the CUSP Art and Design Curriculum, pupils are given the tools, techniques, and inspiration to explore and create with confidence and imagination.

Our art curriculum is ambitious, inclusive, and evidence-informed, designed to develop both technical skill and artistic thinking. Pupils engage with a wide range of disciplines—including drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, 3D work, and collage—with each year building on the last to ensure clear progression and increasing challenge.

🖌️ What Makes Our Art Curriculum Special?

• Vertical Progression: Key artistic disciplines are revisited throughout the primary years, allowing pupils to deepen their understanding and refine their skills over time.
• Working Artistically: Children learn to think and talk like artists, developing their understanding of shape, line, colour, texture, form, value, and space.
• Knowledge-Rich and Skills-Focused: Each block of learning includes core knowledge, technical vocabulary, and practical techniques, supported by high-quality teacher videos and exemplars.
• Creative Response: Pupils are encouraged to make creative choices, reflect on their work, and respond to the styles and techniques of great artists from around the world.
• Inclusive and Adaptive: The curriculum is designed to be accessible to all learners, with thoughtful adjustments to support pupils with SEND.

🧵 A Journey Through the Arts

From exploring mark-making in KS1 to experimenting with batik, sculpture, and surrealism in Years 5 and 6, our pupils experience a rich and varied artistic journey. They learn to:

• Use a wide range of materials and media
• Develop fine motor skills and visual literacy
• Express emotion and mood through art
• Understand and apply artistic vocabulary
• Reflect on their own work and the work of others

🗣️ Talking About Art

Oracy and vocabulary are at the heart of our approach. Pupils are taught to use precise artistic language to describe, evaluate, and explain their ideas. Through structured tasks and discussions, they build the confidence to share their creative thinking and respond thoughtfully to feedback.