“What has my child made with their hands at school this week?”

[KitchenTable1]

www.accessart.org.uk/what-is-the-real-value-of-art-education/ is a campaign that has really caught my interest this week. There seems to be much less opportunity for our children to experience visual art education in their schools? How do you feel about this? I'm not sure that a hand made Mother's day card is really art education. That's all mine has done this term.

My class used air drying clay to make "Picasso heads" does that count?

DD2 made Christmas ornaments with magiclay. But not sure if that counts. Also did a small study on William Morris and each child designed a wooden stamp that were later sent off somewhere to be made.

DD1 has looked at the Greeks and they made Greek pots from Plaster of Paris that they later painted. Later this year she is doing a little topic on sketching wildlife by the school pond I think.

It's not much though...

I feel that our children have limited opportunity to
Play and learn about music
Learn useful foreign language from specialists
Practice life skills
Try out less common, more interesting and perhaps more accessible sports
Use technology
Produce films and photos
Use maths in a real way
Write what THEY want to write
Learn about religions around the world in a meaningful way from adherents to those faiths

And on and on and on. I want so much for our children but no curriculum can deliver everything. Threads like this make me feel like I'm drowning in parents and societies expectations.

This week we have made watercolour silhouettes, attempted a recreation of an old master using oil paints, finished off our bas relief stellae made from clay and painted our salt dough contour maps. Art across the currlculum covering Literacy, RE, history and geography!

Should have said that was thus week. Last week they did collage. Week before watercolours. Week before printing. Etc etc etc
Music mainly vocal and untuned instruments (basically African drums & tambours)

Art should be taught/experienced every day (or at least every week) and parents should make a fuss if it isn't. Well done to schools who do this. Shame on those who don't....

But then, so does history and geography and science and pe and re and PSHE and music and computing and dt and foreign languages and handwriting and maths and reading and writing and 1001 other things thst we need to try to fit in. It isnt that we want to ignore art, it is that there is so much else to do as well!

If you feel so strongly that children must receive daily art education, then I'd say that the onus is on you (as a parent) to provide it. Schools do teach art, but they also teach loads of other things. Your can't build a curriculums rounds our own personal hobby horse.

We have an overstuffed curriculum and not enough hours in the day to give each subject the depth of coverage they deserve

Also 'making with your hands' encompasses much that isn't (visual) arts. Similarly, you can produce visual art without 'making with your hands'.

Dd2 has made mummies this term, and they have made stamps and are doing printing this week. They made knopic jars from papier mâché and decorated them.
They also made all the sets for their play about Egyptians and they made loads of art work for their classrooms and corridors.

Each term they have a theme and so they completely transform their part of the school to convey that.

Ds (8) has done loads lately and tbh that's only the stuff I've heard about. They've made costumes, paper mâché masks, miniature village, life size self portraits, candle holders, cards and flip books.

I'm a Ta in a yr 1/2 class We've made African huts out of paper straws, African pots from clay, made Easter cards, decorated hard boiled eggs, made a nest for them and decorated a giant(4ft across) starfish made from mudroc!

CalamitouslyWrong- what a silly comment. Humans have used art to communicate for 37,000 years- in fact, the earliest form of human person to person communication, so to call it a hobby horse is short sighted. By the way- all curriculum content CAN be taught via the Arts.

Well done all of you who can show that visual art education is important and valued.

Ours have an art specialist covering PPA time - so an afternoon a week doing all sorts of stuff - clay, sewing, collage, painting & drawing, woodwork etc. I am often in two minds about the school, but this is definitely one of things that keeps us there.

Painted self portraits
Made and tested boats
Made chairs out of reclaimed materials and wooden blocks
3 course meals from mud and leaves
Playdough sculptures
Explored ice and powder paint

This is in nursery, but creativity is at the heart of how our children learn.

CliniqueChubbyStick I am a governor at two primary schools- both in VERY deprived areas- both value Arts as intrinsic to the curriculum- one is outstanding x 4 and one is good x2 outstanding x2. You CAN integrate it and make it count.

little fish- that's brilliant!#moreartnotless

It's not a silly comment. If your personal educational hobby horse is visual arts (and there are plenty more arts), that doesn't mean it's the most important thing on the curriculum. Nor does it mean that everything should be taught via the arts. Your argument is too much in the michael Gove school of curriculum development by personal preference.

That in no way denigrates art. I'd say much the same to someone who insisted that science was all that matters, or anything else for that matter. There's a lot of content to be taught in schools and it needs to be delivered in a way that will allow alll children to learn. There'd be a lot of very unhappy children of every thing was art (or any other subject area).

And being old doesn't mean better (or necessarily worse). We used abacuses for calculations centuries ago, and lots of MNers will remember books of trig tables. You can do wonderful, elegant maths with these and people did for centuries. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have moved towards calculators.

In school: clay model, acrylic piece, mosaic, grid-art.
As homework: net-making, collage.
After-school art club: painting, more clay work (she came out covered in most of it).

(Year 6, state primary)

Sorry, that was since the February half-term, not all in the same week!