Collage and textiles (KS1 – KS2)

KS1 KS2 Art

Collage and textiles are the strands where art becomes tactile. Cutting, tearing, layering, weaving and stitching give children a different route into making images, and often a more forgiving one. Here’s what the curriculum expects.

What children learn about collage and textiles at KS1 and KS2

What the national curriculum expects

Collage and textiles aren’t named individually in the art and design curriculum. They sit within the KS1 requirement to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products, and to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space, and within the KS2 requirement to improve mastery of art and design techniques with a range of materials. Textiles also appear in design and technology, where pupils select from and use a wide range of materials and components including textiles.

Key knowledge and concepts

Within this topic, children build skills in working with paper, fabric and thread:

Cutting, tearing and arranging paper into images

Building depth and interest through layers

Combining materials in a single piece

Using material choice to create texture

Simple weaving, and the patterns it produces

Basic stitches, and using thread as a drawing line

Adding colour and pattern to fabric

Makers known for working in these materials

Where this topic sits within KS1 and KS2

Collage and textiles run across both key stages as techniques through which the curriculum’s broader requirements are met, rather than as units taught once. Textiles also connect directly to design and technology, where fabric is one of the named materials pupils should work with.

How to access this topic

Collage and textiles don’t sit on their 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.

Find out more about the curriculum

Explore the Art and Design Curriculum

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