Art & Design
A KS3 art curriculum map: what to teach in Years 7, 8 and 9, and why in that order
Three years of half-termly units. The order is the argument: each unit builds what the next one assumes.
Built from the Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 Art & Design schemes of work on this site, which are written against the statutory programme of study for key stage 3 art and design (DfE, 2013).
A curriculum map says what is taught and when. A useful one also says why each unit sits where it does, because that reasoning is what a new teacher needs the day a trip or a timetable change forces a swap. This is the map the Art schemes of work use for Key Stage 3: three years, 18 half-termly units.
The map at a glance
Every unit, in teaching order, with the term it runs in and what students make at the end.
| Unit | Term | What students make |
|---|---|---|
| Year 7 1a The Formal Elements: Line, Shape and Tone | Autumn 1 | An A3 observational drawing of a still life group, using line, shape and a three-step tonal range. |
| Year 7 1b Colour and Texture | Autumn 2 | An A3 mixed-media study of a textured natural object, using a colour scheme chosen for a reason. |
| Year 7 2a Pattern, Symmetry and Printing | Spring 1 | A printed repeat pattern made with found objects and hand-cut stamps, from a designed motif. |
| Year 7 2b Telling Stories: Art Before Writing | Spring 2 | A narrative sequence of three images telling one story, using an earth-pigment palette. |
| Year 7 3a Clay: Natural Forms | Summer 1 | A modelled clay natural form with a worked surface, made by pinching and modelling from one piece. |
| Year 7 3b Artists and Me | Summer 2 | A personal response to one artist chosen from a departmental shortlist, with the research and experiments kept. |
| Year 8 1a Colour and Paint | Autumn 1 | An A3 painted study of a still life or landscape source, mixed from a limited palette. |
| Year 8 1b The Human Figure and Face | Autumn 2 | An A3 half-length figure or portrait study, constructed on guidelines and finished in tone. |
| Year 8 2a Pattern Across Cultures: Ancient to Modern | Spring 1 | A designed repeat pattern developed from a researched historical source, with the source properly named. |
| Year 8 2b Relief Printmaking | Spring 2 | A hand-printed edition of three consistent prints from a cut block, developed from the Unit 2a motif. |
| Year 8 3a Clay and the Vessel | Summer 1 | A hand-built vessel with a designed surface, referenced to a named historical ceramic tradition. |
| Year 8 3b Artist Study and Personal Response | Summer 2 | A personal response to a self-chosen artist, presented with the research, experiments and rejected options. |
| Year 9 1a Structures & Still Life | Autumn 1 | A final A3 tonal still life composition of a personal object arrangement, developed through sketchbook experimentation and one artist-response study. |
| Year 9 1b Portraiture & Identity | Autumn 2 | A final expressive mixed-media self-portrait, developed through grid, mirror-study and symbolic-collage experimentation. |
| Year 9 2a Surrealism & the Subconscious | Spring 1 | A final surreal composition in paint or mixed media, developed through automatic drawing, exquisite corpse and scale-distortion experimentation. |
| Year 9 2b Pop Art & Printmaking | Spring 2 | A final printed edition (3–4 prints) of a personal-object design, developed through cutting practice and colour/registration trials. |
| Year 9 3a 3D & Sculpture: Natural Forms | Summer 1 | A final 3D piece in clay, plaster or mixed natural materials, developed through a wire maquette and photographic documentation of an outdoor response. |
| Year 9 3b GCSE / IGCSE Taster — Personal Response | Summer 2 | A mini project folder (mind-map/mood-board, one artist-research page, one final personal-response piece) applying the whole year’s skills independently, used as an Options-evening exemplar. |
What each year is for
Year 7
Six half-termly units across one academic year, written backwards from what Year 8 states it assumes on entry. Year 7 establishes the formal elements, the colour wheel, first paint and print handling, informal clay, and the habit of keeping the working-out.
Year 8
Six half-termly units across one academic year, sequenced so each builds what the next assumes. Year 7 establishes the formal elements; this year builds the breadth of media and the historical range the key stage requires.
Year 9
Six half-termly units across one academic year, each building something the next one assumes. It ends with an independent personal response that rehearses how a 14–16 course actually works.
Why the order matters: one unit as the example
Take the first unit of Year 8, Colour and Paint. The Year 8 scheme says that it “opens the year deliberately: everything after it — pattern, print, clay surface — makes colour decisions.” Beside that it records what the unit builds on and where it leads: Year 7’s naming of the formal elements and the colour wheel and some experience of ready-mix paint, and, afterwards, Unit 1b, “where colour is applied to the figure”, and Unit 3a, “where it becomes surface on a 3D form”.
That is the part a bare list of units cannot carry. A department that knows a unit leads into two others knows what breaks if it is moved, and that is the difference between a curriculum map and a timetable of topics.
Every year ends the same way, with less support each time
The final unit of each year is a personal response to an artist, and the scaffolding fades:
- Year 7, 3b, Artists and Me. A personal response to one artist chosen from a departmental shortlist, with the research and experiments kept. Artists: Student-selected from a departmental shortlist of six
- Year 8, 3b, Artist Study and Personal Response. A personal response to a self-chosen artist, presented with the research, experiments and rejected options. Artists: Student-selected from a curated departmental list
- Year 9, 3b, GCSE / IGCSE Taster — Personal Response. A mini project folder (mind-map/mood-board, one artist-research page, one final personal-response piece) applying the whole year’s skills independently, used as an Options-evening exemplar. Artists: Student’s choice — revisit a favourite from the year, or research a new artist such as Jean-Michel Basquiat or Yayoi Kusama
Read in order, that is a shortlist of six, then a curated departmental list, then the student’s own choice. The Year 9 scheme describes its final unit as an independent personal response that rehearses how a 14–16 course actually works.
Two principles that hold the map together
The working-out is kept. Experiments, tests and rejected attempts are evidence, not scrap, and they are assessed.
Year 7 Art & Design Scheme of Work
Experimentation is not extra work, it is the process. No student moves to a final piece without a visible trail of tried, reviewed and changed decisions.
Year 8 Art & Design Scheme of Work
Those two rules are stated once at the front of each scheme because they apply to every unit, and they are the habit a sketchbook needs by GCSE. What that habit looks like on the page is covered in GCSE art annotation: what earns marks.
Using the map in your department
The durations, materials, artists and assessment words in the schemes are strong defaults rather than fixed rules, so adapt them to your timetable and your kit. The units are written one row per lesson, which is light enough to keep up to date across a whole department. The reasoning for that is set out in what a Key Stage 3 scheme of work is for.
The schemes behind this map
- Year 7 Art & Design Scheme of Work
- Year 8 Art & Design Scheme of Work
- Year 9 Art & Design Scheme of Work
- Art & Design scheme of work: Key Stage 3, GCSE and A Level, with the GCSE and A Level courses that follow Year 9
- KS3 art knowledge organisers, one A4 sheet for each unit above, with the vocabulary the unit needs