Building Knowledge, Confidence, Creativity and Enjoyment in Teaching Art
AccessArt launches an expert-led educator training programme aimed at empowering teachers and artists to feel more knowledgeable, inspired and confident in teaching art.
Teaching Art Well has been specially designed for educators in all settings who wish to build their understanding of what a rich visual arts education might look like, and how you can help provide it.
Teaching Art Well consists of 8 modules which may be taken alone, as a series, or in any order.
Our aim is that the modules deepen your AccessArt experience, and also help you feel more engaged with your own creativity. Teaching should be fun, and we want you to feel excited by the unique opportunities arts education offers for both teachers and learners.
By sharing our approach we are sharing a philosophy and pedagogy which has developed over the past 26 years. Our vision has helped redefine what arts education can be, and enabled hundreds of thousands of teachers and learners to appreciate the value of a rich arts education. AccessArt is a Subject Association for Art, a Registered Visual Arts Education Charity, and we are backed by the British Educational Suppliers Association, so you can be sure of the quality of our training.
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Expert-led, evidence-informed
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Trusted content and approach
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Cost-effective
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Balances pedagogy and practice
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Supportive course structure combining remote independent learning with Zoom community discussion
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Flexible, accessible and adaptable
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AccessArt certified
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Suitable for all stages of teacher education, and for artist educators in a variety of settings
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Benefits to Participants
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Each module is AccessArt certified, meaning you will receive a certificate upon completion that can be recorded as part of individual and whole-school CPD provision.
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Develop your understanding of AccessArt’s pedagogy and learn how to bring AccessArt to life in your setting.
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Build knowledge and skills in teaching art, craft and design.
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Develop confidence and enjoyment in building a creative classroom.
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Connect with other educators to share experiences, ideas and best practice.
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Cost-effective training: all modules are free to AccessArt members.
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The Modules
Our modular structure enables you to take the courses which feel most relevant to you. You can choose to take all modules in their sequential order, take the modules out of order at the times which work best for you, or just choose one or more module which you feel is particularly relevant to your practice.
exploration 1
What Makes a Great Art Teacher?
Suitable for: ITT, ECT, Art Leads, Classroom Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Artist Educators.
Build your confidence and enthusiasm for teaching art while developing your understanding of what makes a great art teacher.
When educators model curiosity, exploration, open-mindedness, and adaptability, learners follow. This can be challenging if, as a teacher, you feel you lack the experience or knowledge to teach art. This module will help you understand what it feels like to teach art in this way, building your confidence to create classrooms where all learners feel safe, valued, and inspired to explore their creativity, and where you enjoy teaching art too.
Start Date: Coming Soon
exploration 2
Understanding Journeyful Learning
Suitable for: ITT, ECT, Art Leads, Classroom Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Artist Educators.
Creative classrooms centre around energy, momentum, and engagement, but how do we enable this?
We’ll explore some of the key behaviours we want to encourage in pupils: the ability to investigate, make connections, take creative risks, and experiment. We’ll also consider how, when educators shift the classroom from task-led teaching to process-led learning, where sketchbooks, materials, connections, and iteration are central, we can create learning journeys that nurture these capabilities.
This module aims to build your understanding of how the learning environments we create, alongside the activities and approaches we offer, help pupils become confident, creative decision-makers. Providing space for divergent learning opportunities, agency, and ownership helps learners produce diverse work that reflects individual thinking rather than uniform results, ensuring that teaching and learning are richer for everyone.
Start Date: Coming Soon
exploration 3
Why Hands-On Making and Emotional Engagement Matter in Art
Suitable for: ITT, ECT, Art Leads, Classroom Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Artist Educators.
When we make art, we rely on our ability to manipulate and transform materials and images with and through our bodies, as well as on our ability to process the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that arise during the process. When we view art, we again rely on these forms of knowledge to enable us to “read” and respond to a piece.
As educators, it is important that we provide repeated and varied opportunities for pupils to experience what it feels like to handle materials, transform objects in the world, and engage emotionally with creative processes. Through practice and hands-on exploration, children gain confidence and fluency not just in practical skills and techniques, but also in their ability to express themselves in the world, leading to richer and more authentic outcomes.
In this module, we’ll guide you through ways in which you can experience these processes for yourself, so that you can better understand how important they are for learners, and how procedural knowledge can be embedded in a meaningful way.
Start Date: Coming Soon
exploration 4
Seeing, Thinking, Making: How Making Connections Drives Creativity
Suitable for: ITT, ECT, Art Leads, Classroom Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Artist Educators.
Creativity thrives when we enable learners to discover connections between a variety of stimuli. By layering opportunities for seeing, thinking, and making, and allowing these opportunities to weave amongst each other, we create an environment in which learners can make personal discoveries that are meaningful to them.
Seeing, thinking, and making all require different yet interconnected skill sets that we can develop through visual literacy, material literacy, and critical thinking. In this module, we will explore examples of these ways of thinking and learning, and consider how these skills work together to help learners make and respond to art. We will also equip you with foundational approaches to help pupils look slowly, think deeply, and respond personally to artists, environments, and ideas.
Start Date: Coming Soon
exploration 5
Pause, Reflect, Reimagine: How We Enable Learners to Push Further
Suitable for: ITT, ECT, Art Leads, Classroom Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Artist Educators.
Throughout all stages of making, taking time to pause and reflect can help pupils deepen their relationship with their work. Finding ways to help pupils settle, focus, and engage with their work on both a conceptual and physical level gives reflective skills the chance to develop. Alongside this, enabling pupils to share their thoughts, intentions, and frustrations helps them develop the skills needed to persevere, see things in a new light, and evaluate their next steps. Being able to use their imagination to reconsider what might be possible helps remove the limits on what they feel capable of achieving.
In this module, we’ll help you find strategies to embed these skills in the classroom so that your pupils feel confident questioning and challenging their own work, and safe enough to make brave connections and take creative risks.
Start Date: Coming Soon
exploration 6
Celebrate, Connect, Contribute: Remembering Why We Teach Art
Suitable for: ITT, ECT, Art Leads, Classroom Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Artist Educators.
It’s vital that, when we teach art, we remember the purpose of art education. How does art serve us, and why is it important?
We teach art because we want to ensure that the next generation has the skills and opportunities needed to work in the creative industries. We also teach art so that all pupils understand the ways in which art can enrich their lives. Art is not only part of our individual humanity through expression, but also a powerful way to connect with other people, places, and cultures.
In this module, we’ll explore how art can help pupils feel seen, valued, and empowered to contribute. We’ll consider how creative experiences nurture confidence, connection, and belonging, while giving learners meaningful opportunities to express who they are and engage with the world around them. Together, we’ll explore ways in which art can bring communities together, support wellbeing, and help learners develop a stronger sense of place in the world.
Start Date: Coming Soon
exploration 7
Inclusive Creativity for All
Suitable for: ITT, ECT, Art Leads, Classroom Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Artist Educators.
How do we ensure all pupils recognise and value the contributions they can make through art while engaging with diverse artists, cultures, and disciplines?
This module explores how, as educators, we can create inclusive and aspirational arts education that broadens participation, reduces barriers, and helps all pupils understand the ways in which art is relevant to them. We discuss how exploring a wide range of artistic practices, intentions, perspectives, and outcomes enables pupils to see themselves and others reflected in the curriculum, expanding their understanding of creativity and developing respect for the many ways of making and meaning.
Start Date: Coming Soon
exploration 8
