--- title: Our art and design curriculum description: Find out more about our art and design curriculum --- [Skip to content](https://support.thenational.academy/our-art-and-design-curriculum#main-content) [Report an issue](https://support.thenational.academy/kb-tickets/new?hsLang=en) ![flogo.png\]](https://support.thenational.academy/hs-fs/hubfs/Email/oak-template-august22/flogo.png?height=44&name=flogo.png) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Report an issue](https://support.thenational.academy/kb-tickets/new) - [Back to Oak](https://www.thenational.academy/) [Back to Oak](https://www.thenational.academy/) How can we help? - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Help Centre](https://support.thenational.academy/?hsLang=en) 2. [Our curriculum plans](https://support.thenational.academy/our-curriculum-plans?hsLang=en) 3. [Our subject curriculum plans](https://support.thenational.academy/our-curriculum-plans?hsLang=en#our-subject-curriculum-plans) September 28, 2026 # Our art and design curriculum ## Find out more about our art and design curriculum ### Contents - [Introduction](https://support.thenational.academy/our-art-and-design-curriculum#intro) - [Which art and design curriculum plans are available?](https://support.thenational.academy/our-art-and-design-curriculum#plans-available) - [Unit sequences](https://support.thenational.academy/our-art-and-design-curriculum#unit-sequence) - [Curriculum explainer](https://support.thenational.academy/our-art-and-design-curriculum#curric-explainer) - [Downloading plans and the national curriculum alignment document](https://support.thenational.academy/our-art-and-design-curriculum#download) - [More about our art and design curriculum](https://support.thenational.academy/our-art-and-design-curriculum#more) **✅Preparing for the revised national curriculum** We're updating our teaching resources and curriculum plans and sharing guidance to help schools prepare confidently and reduce workload ahead of the revised curriculum in September 2028, and the updated GCSEs beyond. [Sign up now](https://www.thenational.academy/campaigns/curriculum-and-assessment-review?utm_campaign=CAR&utm_source=hs_knowledgebase&utm_medium=article_-#sign-up) to receive: ![Illustration of a teacher placing a building block in a stack of blocks meant to demonstrate the building of a curriculum from lots of different parts](https://support.thenational.academy/hs-fs/hubfs/Building_block.png?width=280&height=168&name=Building_block.png) - the latest updates - expert guidance - invitations to webinars - free resources and helpful content. ### Introduction We’ve been working closely with curriculum partners, subject experts and teachers and have released our [interactive art and design curriculum plan](https://www.thenational.academy/about-us/oaks-curricula). You can also download the plan to use offline to help with your planning. Our curriculum partner for art and design is: - art and design primary and secondary: [National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD)](https://www.thenational.academy/blog/introducing-our-art-and-design-curriculum-partner) Meet our art and design Subject Lead, Emily Gopaul, as she talks about her own love of art, the privilege of teaching art and design and how the Oak curriculum was created to help teachers plan and inspire pupils' creativity. ### Which art and design curriculum plans are available? We have the following art and design curriculum plans available to browse and download. - [Art and design KS1 and 2 unit sequences](https://www.thenational.academy/teachers/programmes/art-primary/units) - [Art and design KS3 and 4 unit sequences](https://www.thenational.academy/teachers/programmes/art-secondary/units) ### Unit sequences ![Art and design secondary curriculum unit sequence tab](https://support.thenational.academy/hs-fs/hubfs/Knowledge%20Base/Integrated%20journey%2026/art-and-design-secondary-curriculum-unit-sequence-tab.png?width=670&height=428&name=art-and-design-secondary-curriculum-unit-sequence-tab.png) You can view our curriculum sequence using the unit sequence tab. It will display the units available for each year group, how many lessons are available in a unit and a recommended order. All units have a description of 'why this, why now' and 'prior knowledge requirements' to help you consider the sequence of your current planning. You can move easily from units into lessons to understand **lesson outcomes**, helping you connect curriculum intent with classroom delivery.  You can see how threads show common themes develop across an entire phase or filter the view to see a single year group. ### Curriculum explainer ![Art and design secondary curriculum explainer tab](https://support.thenational.academy/hs-fs/hubfs/Knowledge%20Base/Integrated%20journey%2026/art-and-design-secondary-curriculum-explainer-tab.png?width=670&height=417&name=art-and-design-secondary-curriculum-explainer-tab.png) We've added a curriculum explainer to our art and design curriculum to help you understand our thinking when we were making them with our curriculum partner. For art and design this will help you understand: - our overarching curriculum approach and the subject principles we used - how our curriculum reflects the aims and purpose of the national curriculum - information on delivering it in your school - how we use threads to provide curriculum coherence. ### Downloading plans and the national curriculum alignment document ![Art and design secondary curriculum download tab](https://support.thenational.academy/hs-fs/hubfs/Knowledge%20Base/Integrated%20journey%2026/art-and-design-secondary-curriculum-download-tab.png?width=670&height=415&name=art-and-design-secondary-curriculum-download-tab.png) Download the curriculum plan to help you see all the content in one place, including the explainer, the units and the lessons. **🛠️ Curriculum implementation toolkit ![New](https://support.thenational.academy/hs-fs/hubfs/undefined-Sep-02-2025-12-50-21-2302-PM.png?width=70&height=34&name=undefined-Sep-02-2025-12-50-21-2302-PM.png)** When you download a curriculum plan, you'll also get our **new curriculum implementation documents**. Our implementation toolkit helps subject and phase leads put our curriculum into practice. Get **Common questions** and **Checking pupils' understanding in our lessons** now with more guides for every subject and phase to follow. The national curriculum document explains how the Oak art and design curriculum aligns to the national curriculum. Find out more about how to use our interactive curriculum plans and **adapt them for your school** in our [help article: A guide to our curriculum plans](https://support.thenational.academy/a-guide-to-our-new-curricula?hsLang=en). ### More about our art and design curriculum In our [blog: Art and design at Oak: Our approach to imagery and reference](https://www.thenational.academy/blog/art-and-design-at-oak-our-approach-to-imagery-and-references), our subject lead Emily Gopaul explains the diverse artist references used to bring the curriculum to life. Emily also explains how our curriculum helps pupils to observe artworks at scale in her [blog: Classroom as gallery: a collaboration with October Gallery](https://www.thenational.academy/blog/classroom-as-gallery-a-collaboration-with-october-gallery).    - [Our curriculum plans](https://support.thenational.academy/our-curriculum-plans?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Our subject curriculum plans](https://support.thenational.academy/our-curriculum-plans?hsLang=en#our-subject-curriculum-plans) - [Our teaching resources](https://support.thenational.academy/our-teaching-resources?hsLang=en) - [Our AI tools](https://support.thenational.academy/our-ai-tools?hsLang=en) - [Our pupil area](https://support.thenational.academy/our-pupil-area?hsLang=en) - [Technical support](https://support.thenational.academy/technical-support?hsLang=en) - [More about us](https://support.thenational.academy/more-about-us?hsLang=en) - Oak - [Report an issue](https://support.thenational.academy/kb-tickets/new) - [Back to homepage](https://www.thenational.academy/) - [About us](https://www.thenational.academy/about-us/who-we-are) - [Careers](https://jobs.thenational.academy/) - [Contact us](https://www.thenational.academy/contact-us) - [Blog](https://www.thenational.academy/blog) - [Webinars](https://www.thenational.academy/webinars) - [Status](https://status.thenational.academy/) - Legal - [Terms & conditions](https://www.thenational.academy/legal/terms-and-conditions) - [Privacy policy](https://www.thenational.academy/legal/privacy-policy) - [Copyright notice](https://www.thenational.academy/legal/copyright-notice) - [Accessibility statement](https://www.thenational.academy/legal/accessibility-statement) - [Safeguarding statement](https://www.thenational.academy/legal/safeguarding-statement) - [Physical activity disclaimer](https://www.thenational.academy/legal/physical-activity-disclaimer) - [Complaints](https://www.thenational.academy/legal/complaints) - [Freedom of information requests](https://www.thenational.academy/legal/freedom-of-information-requests) [![Oak National Academy](https://support.thenational.academy/hs-fs/hubfs/Oak_SmallUseSymbol_RGB-1.png?width=17&height=24&name=Oak_SmallUseSymbol_RGB-1.png "Oak National Academy")](https://www.thenational.academy/) © Oak National Academy Limited, No 14174888 Oak National Academy 1 Scott Place, 2 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AA ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "VideoObject", "caption" : { "@type" : "MediaObject", "contentUrl" : "https://support.thenational.academy/media-transcripts/209389411696/en.vtt", "inLanguage" : "en", "name" : "en Captions" }, "contentUrl" : "https://19961797.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/19961797/video_assets/209389411696/inherited/web_optimized.mp4", "dateModified" : "2026-03-19T09:48:29.562Z", "duration" : "PT2M2S", "height" : 2160, "name" : "art-and-design-sl-video-2026", "thumbnailUrl" : "https://support.thenational.academy/hubfs/Knowledge%20Base/Article%20videos/art-and-design-sl-video-2026.mp4/medium.jpg", "uploadDate" : "2026-03-16T16:30:25.383Z", "width" : 3840 } ```