Every one of our children is unique and special. We are committed to providing an exceptional learning experience for all the children in our Holy Trinity family. We strive to enable our children to acquire the knowledge, skills and characteristics they need to be successful in the wider world. At Holy Trinity, we serve our community with compassion, empathy and kindness in all that we do. We aim to ensure that all our children have equal access to a broad, balanced and inclusive curriculum which provides them with the opportunity to develop their self-esteem, confidence and ability to work together in a safe and stimulating environment. Children not only flourish academically but also through the creative arts, music and sport. We want our children to demonstrate resilience, confidence, and kindness and live out our Christian Values everywhere they go. At Holy Trinity our aim is to provide children with opportunities to explore and gain an understanding of the world around them in a creative context, making links across the curriculum to deepen understanding of all new learning. As part of the Holy Trinity Curriculum, learners are encouraged to express themselves when learning about all areas of the curriculum. This personal discovery is developed through using a range of artistic mediums including drawing, painting, sculpture and design and the children thoroughly enjoy all their creative learning experiences. Finding out about the wider world through exploration of different artists and designers from past and present, means, their understanding of their place in the world and in history becomes more meaningful. Each term, children in every year group study an artist and one of their artworks. They learn about the artist and the artist artwork, studying style and techniques, to produce an inspired art piece of their own. Year 5’s Topic last Term was Power of the arts: Fine Art with a focus on Vincent van Gogh. The children researched van Gogh’s life growing up and his time spent in London. We used a beautifully illustrated book called, Vincent and the colors of the wind’ by Chiara Lossani as our core text. The children studied Starry Night and recreated them and well as creating portraits inspired by van Gogh’s use of colour and brush strokes. A4: The children sketched their portraits from photographs and painted them using water colour. These were cut out and stuck on to a background which was created using mark making techniques, using poster paints. They also used PVA glue over the top. Black markers were used to add definition. A3: The larger paintings were made using acrylic paper, which the children first added a wash to and tape to create a border. Then they used acrylics for the first time to create their portraits. They learnt about mixing skin colour and experimented with tone. Their backgrounds were inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s distinctive brush marks and use of colour.