Art

What will be taught?

Courses will seek to provide understanding and enjoyment through activities which develop a pupil’s practical artistic skills and their ability to study how ideas, feelings and meanings are conveyed in images and artefacts and how they relate to their social, historical and cultural context.

Emphasis is placed upon direct experience through which the skills, concepts and values central to art and design education can be developed and schemes of work are constructed to prepare pupils for a general paper, allowing them the opportunity to gain a broad understanding, to explore personal creative ideologies in response to a common stimulus and in a variety of disciplines.  These may include sculpture, ceramics, printmaking and textiles but the course is primarily concerned with drawing and painting and the fine art bias reflects staff expertise and interest.  On occasions pupils will be directed to these other disciplines but on others arrive at them through their own visual research and development.

 

How will it be taught?

The course is run for mixed ability groups and is taught for four periods a week but there is ample opportunity for pupils to pursue their education over and above their timetabled allocation.

The work organised in the first year of the course is designed as a foundation for all pupils, is introduced through illustrated work sheets or short video presentations but will not have too rigidly a prescribed outcome.  During the year pupils will engage in a number of projects which will be thematically linked where possible, demand research and development, stress the importance of sketchbooks and work journals, and place emphasis on the ability to interpret, rather than simply copy, the visual world.

Although the work in the second year of the course retains a tight structure, increasingly pupils will initiate a personal programme of study as their work and ideas become more mature and cohesive and as they develop a greater historical and contextual awareness.

During this period pupils will be required to complete a) two units of coursework – a unit of work consisting of a body of research, supplementary studies and the developmental work leading to one or more outcomes or to a variety of resolutions and b) the externally assessed assessment which takes the form of a thematic paper and is executed during a ten hour controlled test.

It is a mandatory requirement that pupils keep a work journal – a combination of sketchbook and time based record and these, together with support work linked to the main programme of study will be undertaken by pupils in their own time.

Visits to view the local and national art collections are organised as an integral feature of the course.

 

How will it be examined?

All pupils sit a common paper set by the Edexcel which gives access to all grades.  It is examined in two components and presented for assessment in the form of an exhibition.  The two coursework units are internally set, internally marked and externally moderated and accounts for 60% of the total mark.

The terminal examination is externally set, internally examined and externally moderated. It accounts for 40% of the total mark and has two elements, a ten hours timed test which takes place in March and the supporting studies.  Examination papers are distributed eight weeks prior to the timed test to enable students time to carry out the necessary visual research and development.  A grade can only be awarded if all elements are represented.