Art and design is a subject into which newly arrived children can easily be integrated. All children can express themselves in paint and other media. The creation of artwork can boost the self-esteem of a newly arrived child, and through art and design children learn to express themselves non-verbally. This may offer opportunities for self-expression for children whose English language is still limited.

Art and design can also be used therapeutically to help children reflect on their emotions. Many schools have found that art is particularly helpful in enabling refugee children to settle.

Teachers may find the 'Providing effective learning opportunities for all pupils' from the inclusion statement helpful. Teachers need to consider the full requirements of the inclusion statement when planning for individuals or groups of pupils. There are specific references to art and design in the examples for B/3c, C/5b and C/5c. 

To overcome any potential barriers to learning in art and design, some newly arrived children may require:

• alternative tasks to overcome any difficulties arising from specific religious beliefs relating to ideas and experiences they are expected to represent
• access to stimuli, participation in everyday events and explorations, materials, word descriptions and other resources, to compensate for a lack of specific first-hand experiences and to allow them to explore an idea or theme.

Art  and design teachers may need to consider the following issues when working with new arrivals.

Familiarity with different media, materials and processes

Children educated in state schools in less economically developed countries may not have had the opportunity to work in particular media, materials and processes. They might need time to experiment with what is new to them before any directed activity is planned.

For children who need to experiment with working in particular media, materials and processes the following QCA units of work would be appropriate.

Key stage 1:

Unit 1B ‘Investigating materials’
In this unit children investigate the qualities of a variety of natural and made materials. They learn skills for weaving and gain sensory experience of materials and an understanding of colour and texture. They learn about how textiles are used in their own and others' lives.

Key stage 2:

Unit 5C ‘Talking textiles’
In this unit children explore how stories have been represented in textiles in different times and cultures. They work together to make a two- or three-dimensional work based on a familiar story, myth or legend. They investigate and use a range of materials, techniques and textile processes to create surface patterns and textures and other visual and sound effects.

Valuing different cultural heritages

Newly arrived children’s art and design is influenced by the culture in which they grew up. The artistic codes and conventions that represent different ideas and beliefs are culturally specific. In some cultures, the visual appearance of artwork may be less important than the meaning attached to it. European linear perspective may not be used.

Our own interpretations of art and design are influenced by our cultural heritage. Children need to consider the value they may attach to art and design from different cultures and be aware of how they have come to these judgements. Artwork from different cultures does need to be considered in relation to its context rather than being seen as exotic or unusual.

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Art and design from different cultures

Schools might focus on particular art forms from different cultures as pupil intake changes. For example, a school might want to examine Islamic art or particular African art forms. The programmes of study require children to be taught about:

Key stage 1:

c) differences and similarities in the work of artists, craftspeople and designers in different times and cultures, for example, sculptors, photographers, architects, textile designers.

Key stage 2:

c) the roles and purposes of artists, craftspeople and designers working in different times and cultures, for example, Western Europe and the wider world.

Parental support

Not all parents may support their children’s participation and progression in art and design. Some parents may view art and design as low status and non-academic.
 
A very small minority of observant Muslim parents may discourage or feel uncomfortable about their children’s production of figurative art that portrays people and animals. This is because some religious leaders have interpreted Islamic teaching about the worship of false idols in such a way to suggest that it forbids the production of human and animal forms, rather than their worship. However, not all observant Muslims follow this interpretation of Islam. Somali folk art has a strong figurative tradition that is reflected in Somali children’s drawings.

Teachers can discuss art and design in school with new parents and carers in order to allay concerns and promote the value of the subject.

Challenging racism and promoting diversity

Art and design can be used to provide effective learning opportunities for pupils to value diversity and challenge racism. The Respect for all in art and design website provides examples of good practice that focus on helping pupils to understand and appreciate aspects of cultural difference, context and change while challenging and extending their perceptions of themselves and other people.

Art and design projects can provide the opportunity to examine issues such as migration, being new, diversity and racism. For example, children could undertake work on the Statue of Liberty, examining the original meaning behind the statue and what it may have meant to an immigrant arriving in nineteenth-century New York. Children might then create their own statue of liberty for modern-day Britain.

Art and design can be used to promote community cohesion in areas of tension. The collaborative nature of an art or design project can bring different groups together. In a number of parts of England where asylum seekers have not been welcomed, art and design projects have been used to bring different groups together. The Friendship Project, an educational organisation that works in Kent to promote the welcome of refugees, organised a community kite-making event to bring refugee and non-refugee pupils together at a time of tension.

Case study

The Arts Plus (A+) project
This case study shows how two primary schools in East London plan for the inclusion of pupils with diverse learning needs, including new arrivals, through an innovative creative arts project.

Buddying

Buddying and befriending schemes can be important in art, especially if children are working collaboratively or using new equipment. The 'Peer support' area of this site provides guidance on this approach.

Supporting children’s English language acquisition

Art and design can be used to support children’s English language acquisition, in particular their oral skills. The collaborative nature of some art projects can also support English language development. Access and engagement in art: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language describes useful strategies for supporting EAL children in art. It suggests that art teachers introduce and explain new vocabulary and also provides some useful examples of writing frames to support children’s study of the work of particular artists.

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Art therapy

Art and design can be utilised therapeutically to enable children to express themselves, develop understanding of complex events and feelings, and understand others. Art therapy is extensively used in the health service and a growing number of art therapists are also facilitating work with children in schools.

There are times and places where a registered art therapist should be used, for example for work with very disturbed refugee children. But primary school teachers, art teachers and care workers can use art with refugee children in ways that help them settle.

It is best to give children time to use new art materials such as crayons, oil pastels, paints, plasticine, clay and collage materials before any directed activity is planned.

The aim of using art with refugee children is twofold: to boost self-esteem by creating something and to help them reflect on events and feelings. Art therapy for groups (cited below) is a resource for such activities.

Many of the DfES/QCA units of work can be adapted to encompass the therapeutic activities described below.

Self-portraits

Children can work in different media and materials to produce self-portraits. The following units are not simply about visual self-identity but aim to develop children’s awareness about perception, association and identity.  

Unit 1A ‘Self-portrait’

Unit 3A ‘Portraying relationships’

Mask production

Units 1A and 3A also include mask production and discussion of facial features and feelings. They can be used to prompt discussion and reflection on individual emotions. They can suggest ideas about what portraits show about the people in them.

The desert island

Children work in groups of four or five around a large sheet of paper, painting the items they would take to a desert island. There is space for painting personal items as well as communal space for children to paint together. The activity is a good prompt for talk. A variation on this activity is the 'Culture Box' which can be found on the Respect for all site. It aims to

• promote pupils' understanding of themselves and their culture
• investigate the work of others from a range of historical, social and cultural contexts.

Unit 5B ‘Containers’ can build on this activity. In this unit children explore the craft tradition of making vessels and containers. They develop their own designs and build a three-dimensional form to represent a vessel or container that will hold something special that they wish for. They consider examples by contemporary designers and ceramicists and look at work from different cultures. Children can draw on their own cultural background to contribute to this unit.

‘My world’ activities

This can be done with groups of children. Each draws him or herself at the centre of a piece of paper (or sticks a photograph at the centre) and then draws pictures of objects and people that are important, radiating from ‘me’ at the centre. The drawing can be used to prompt discussion and reflection. The same activity can be adapted to ‘My world back home’, where the child draws objects and people left behind. Unit 3A ‘Portraying relationships’ builds on this activity.

Journeys

In Unit 4C ‘Journeys’ children explore how signs, symbols and metaphors can be used to communicate ideas and meanings about a journey. They could represent in diagrammatic form, and as a decorative piece, their journeys to the UK. They could describe places, events and journeys they have experienced and design their own signs and symbols to represent objects, events or people they have met on their journeys. However, it is important to understand that some children may wish to put their experiences behind them and might feel uncomfortable if required to draw on recent traumatic events as part of their learning in school. Drawing on a child’s past personal experience requires appropriate professional judgement and sensitivity. Even work in art and design that does not appear to be directly related to the experiences of the child may raise difficult issues.

Good memories and bad memories

Children can be encouraged to draw their memories, starting with good memories. If this is done in a small group where they trust and respect each other, children can share their representations and find commonality of experiences and feelings.

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Useful weblinks

Please note: QCA is not responsible for the content of external sites

DfES: Access and engagement in art and design: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language
This guidance suggests strategies to help teachers support pupils at different points of learning English to:

• develop their understanding and use of the English language
• enhance their learning in art and design lessons.

The guidance also considers how pupils’ self-esteem can be developed. This guidance is for art teachers, subject leaders and ethnic minority achievement (EMA) teachers in secondary schools. Although the guidance applies the principles of the key stage 3 national strategy to the teaching and learning of art and design for EAL pupils, much of it is equally applicable to primary teachers.

Ethnic art
This website features unique ethnic art and world culture. It offers resources, pictures and biographies of artists from many different countries.

Ethnic visual arts
This website has information about, and pictures by, various contemporary ethnic artists from around the world.

National Grid for Learning (NGfL): Inclusion
A catalogue of resources to support individual learning needs for teaching professionals, parents, carers and learners. Resources include publications, software, equipment and online information.

Native American Indian art
Offers insights into Native American Indian art.

QCA: ARTS alive!
ARTS alive! is the outcome of a QCA curriculum development project set up to identify ways in which the contribution of the arts to pupils' education can be maximised. It is designed for use by headteachers, arts subject leaders, school governing bodies and arts practitioners. It contains a range of good practice case studies.

National curriculum in action: Creativity: find it, promote it
This section of the National curriculum in action website provides practical ideas on how to promote pupils’ creative thinking and behaviour, including case studies that show how teachers can promote creativity through art and design.

QCA: Respect for all in art and design
This area of the QCA site provides ideas of how art and design can be used to challenge racism and promote diversity.

Forced Migration Review: 'The role of art in psychosocial care and protection for displaced children'
This article (from volume 6, December 1999) examines UNICEF’s experiences  in using art in psychosocial protection programmes for displaced children.

Virtual teacher centre: Art and design
A collection of links to sites which relate to teaching art and design at key stage 1 and 2.

Women in art
Offers a multi-ethnic perspective on women artists.

Further resources

Arts therapists, refugees and migrants: reaching across borders, Doktor, D,  Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1998

Art therapy for groups: a handbook of themes, games and exercises, Liebman, M, Routledge, 1986

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