What children learn about art and design at KS1 and KS2
What the national curriculum expects
The art and design curriculum sets out expectations for both key stages. At KS1, pupils should use a range of materials creatively to design and make products, use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space, and learn about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers. At KS2, pupils should create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas, improve their mastery of art and design techniques including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials, and learn about great artists, architects and designers in history.
Key knowledge and concepts
Within this subject, children build knowledge and skill across every strand of art and design:
Drawing
Observation, line, shading and perspective
Painting
Colour, technique and working with different paints
Sculpture
Working in three dimensions with clay and other materials
Colour
Primary and secondary colours, mixing and colour theory
Line, shape and form
The visual elements that underpin all art
Printmaking
Making and repeating images through print
Collage and textiles
Building images from materials, fabric and thread
Significant artists
Studying artists, craft makers, designers and architects
Where this topic sits within KS1 and KS2
Art and design is taught in every year group from Year 1 to Year 6. Techniques are revisited each year with growing sophistication rather than taught once, and sketchbooks become a statutory requirement at KS2.
How to access this topic
Art and design doesn’t sit on its own in the curriculum. The Cornerstones art and design curriculum is fully sequenced from EYFS through Year 1 to Year 6, so you can see what comes before, what follows and how the whole picture fits together. We’ve done the thinking, so your planning time goes into teaching, not sequencing.
Full curriculum
Subject curriculum
Quick Teach Individual lessons and resources for supplementing what you already teach.
Ready to bring the wider curriculum to life?
See how the full Cornerstones Art and Design Curriculum sequences topics like this one across every year group.