Design & Technology

Bishop Barrington Academy’s Art and Design curriculum is a culture rich curriculum. Students acquire a broad range Art & Design knowledge, skills and understanding that enables them to open many doors within these disciplines into post-16 and beyond. At Key Stage 4 the curriculum offer includes a range of disciplines from Art & Design to Graphic Communication and Photography.

At the start of the curriculum journey, the focus is to build on, and develop skills which may have only been introduced briefly at key stage 2. These skills are carefully woven throughout the curriculum journey ensuring a logical sequence of progression and plentiful opportunities for students to produce work which exhibit culmination of mastery of these skills. 

Students record and manage their work in sketchbooks and workbooks, each one demonstrating progression in the 3 strands of Art: knowledge, skills and understanding. The curriculum recognises the cultural limitations which disadvantaged students may experience in the local context and aims to provide opportunities to enrich students’ cultural experiences; introducing pupils to contemporary and historical artists, as well as different cultures. The weekly enrichment club provides further curriculum opportunities for students to investigate media they would not normally have the opportunity to experiment with at KS3. 

Students are encouraged to participate in design competitions, with links to the wider community, such opportunities enable students to have their work exhibited in public areas around County Durham. 

Click HERE to find out more about our curriculum rationale.