Review rating:

Average rating across all Kapow Primary reviews: 4.1/5

Good resource personally would prefer to plan my own art but it has given me some nice ideas More artist focus, more differentiation, more sequential lesson planning that builds up to the final task - these could improve it

How well does it match the curriculum?

Reasonably: It’s good enough for the money, but needs some additional resources

Has all the lesson ideas provided, matched to the curriculum, with videos for pupils and teachers. Good for teachers who are useless with art. Weakness is I don't often like the structure - the lessons don't always build on each other as much as I would like. Too many artists are covered - I usually pick 1 per topic to focus on so at least the children remember a name and some of their work e.g. Van Gogh. If you introduce multiple artists the children have no retention, it is confusing. I apply a lot of my own common sense e.g. no we don't need water, we don't need brushes, we'll change that part - experience helps me avoid the bad ideas.

How well does it support adaptation for different groups of pupils?

Badly: There isn’t enough range or some the age-related expectations are misaligned

The differentiation seems to be by outcome. No real suggestion of how to support weaker pupils. This is true of a lot of paid for resources - they aren't differentiated to the standard the teachers are expected to differentiate to - I need to show clear 3 way differentiation in my plans

How well does it engage and motivate pupils?

Reasonably: We can’t use it too often or for too long

Kids like art in general. Some lovely ideas! I would prefer the lessons building up to a final project more - they feel a bit bitty

How well supported is it by any included formative assessments?

Reasonably: There is some formative assessment included, but its usefulness is a bit limited

Formative assessment is just your observations of the kids and questioning so that is fine In terms of summative assessment that is where we need more help

How well does it support planning?

Well: It’s fairly self-contained and can be used with minimal preparation

It is all there, but you still need to do a lot of thinking on top including adding common sense and differentiating

How well does it support home use / independent learning?

Badly: It’s not really suitable for home use or independent learning

Not for home use

How would you rate it for value for money compared to similar resources?

Reasonably: It represents about the same value for money as similar resources I’ve seen

I do not know the cost or the comparison with other resources as I don't lead artI guess more differentiation, slightly clearer less wordy planning would be nice, there are videos which I like but they miss opportunities to model the misconceptions. This is where the teacher needs to use their experience of kids and common sense

Would you recommend it to a colleague in a similar school to yours? 8/11

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