How far can art provide the visual literacy skills that are often a key requirement of school development plans?

It was also completely free. As a sole art specialist in my school, it is difficult to find opportunities to share and connect with others in a similar position. I do attend CPD sessions after school but these are often brief and come at the end of a busy school day.

“The residential was a unique chance to completely immerse myself in the teaching of art.”

Although initially apprehensive as I was not sure whether other primary teachers would be attending, this quickly evaporated as the evening began with a making session. Everyone was so friendly and open, happy to share their experiences both good and bad. The three days were great – we enjoyed sharing practice, discussed current issues in the classroom and had the opportunity to make long lasting connections with other like-minded teachers whilst making silver-foil masks.

I went back to school rejuvenated and ready to challenge my classroom practice. Inspired by the ATC experience and an unconscious urge to be back in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at Leeds University, I applied for the PG Certificate in Teachers Research and Practice. I had enjoyed my previous MA at UCL but felt that this course would allow me to tailor my research and develop my own teaching practice whilst understanding the barriers to learning within my particular school. In addition, my school had begun to focus on writing, which had initially raised concerns for me personally: what would this emphasis mean for a subject like Art? This became the focal point for my literature review. How far can art provide the visual literacy skills that are often a key requirement of school development plans?

Reflecting on this now it seems quite straight forward, but I do remember feeling very anxious at the first Saturday session. My colleagues all seemed very self-assured whereas I had my usual imposter syndrome. I found the literature review very difficult since I had not written academically for years and I had never written a literature review before. However the support from both my student colleagues and the academic staff, Anne-Louise and Abigail, made the process seem easier!

As part of the research, I looked at the usefulness of a number of ‘looking’ schemes in the primary classroom, which included the Superpower of Looking developed by ArtUK. Through my previous experience in reception I knew just how much young children enjoyed discussing images and had seen how often these images had been used in their play. My research highlighted how difficult my particular cohort of children found it to access and discuss artworks. COVID and the cost of living crisis have had such an impact on their generation.

“With the help of the children, I developed my own acronym SLOW for the children to use as a tool when looking and discussing images/artworks etc.”

This has had amazing results, with every child in my art-room now confident in talking about art. I have absolutely loved becoming part of the ATC community and value their care and commitment. It has been an amazing journey.

I had the space to build the self-confidence needed to share my experiences in the art classroom with the knowledge that sharing these experiences can add value and contribute to this important discussion.

I truly believe in the need for all children to be visually literate, and I hope that my work may, in some small way, contribute to seeing that it is met. I hope to continue my research as I move forward.