Art & DT

Art, craft and design are practical, curious and creative subjects that we value as lifelong skills where pupils are actively taught to explore their imagination, generate ideas, acquire skills and reflect. They are also subjects in which pupils develop their expertise as well as their skills, applying both perseverance and a mastery approach.

At South Malling, art contributes to cross-curricular programmes and to a rich programme of events and activities in the school calendar. The knowledge, skills and understanding are planned and developed systematically to ensure that all pupils make good progress. Art is used to research, record and gather information from observation, memory and other visual sources. Art helps to organise thinking and give form to imaginative ideas, as well as being used to solve problems. 

At South Malling we have chosen to make use of the Design and Technology Association's ‘Projects on a Page’ resource to maximise our children’s enjoyment by providing scope for teachers to meet children’s needs and interests through creative and motivating projects within a range of contexts. This also means that at South Malling our curriculum is based around the six essentials of good practice in D&T: user, purpose, functionality, design decisions, innovation and authenticity. 

South Malling is a healthy school and we believe that it is important in their quest to become active lifelong learners that the children are taught how to cook and apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating. Cooking and nutrition is taught in every year group, instilling a love of cooking in pupils and providing them with the basics of a crucial life skill that enables them to feed themselves and others affordably and well in later life.