“I think art teaches you to deal with the world around you. It is the oxygen that lets all the other subjects breathe.”   Alan Parker, filmmaker

At Kirkby on Bain CE Primary School, we teach our pupils to value the arts and we encourage them to engage in a breadth of performing and creative arts experiences, strengthening their own development and building a rounded understanding of the world around them. We strongly believe that the arts are for all. We aim to celebrate the ideas and achievements of our pupils and challenge them to open their eyes to all they can achieve when possibilities are available to them.

We want our pupils to have the opportunity to richly explore of the arts and experience the celebration of cultures and communities it brings. Where barriers can exist or prevent growth in traditionally academic subjects, the arts can cut through that and provide all children with an opportunity to reveal their true knowledge and understanding.

Learning through and about the arts enriches the experience of studying at school and preparing for life. Arts subjects encourage self-expression and creativity and they can build self-confidence and a sense of individual and unique identity. Creativity has been linked to improvements in health, wellbeing and happiness and provides an outlet for releasing personal pressures. Art helps us to convey more than information, it expresses feeling and conveys what ‘cannot be said’. Art has always had the power to communicate, celebrate and record events, convey information, express ideas and beliefs, convey emotions and feelings.

“The arts matter because I learn something about people and places I would never have known otherwise. The arts make my brain and my heart stretch to make room for newness.” Victoria Hutter

 The arts teach us:

• to make good judgements
• to develop critical thinking and an ability to interpret the world around us
• to celebrate multiple perspectives
• that questioning and possibilities are endless
• that problems have more than one solution
• to develop critical thinking and an ability to interpret the world around us
• to express ourselves and our unique creativity to and with the world, with no fear of a ‘wrong’  answer
• to experiment, explore and discover
• to develop personal responsibility
• that small differences can have large effects