Art and Design
Head of Department: Miss V Koka
Students will follow the Fine Art and Design course outlined in the OCR Specification J170.
The aim of the course is to strengthen and broaden students’ understanding of Art and Design and to provide a framework for the continued study of practical, critical and historical, of different disciplines within the subject. It will also reveal the importance of Art and Design and stimulate imaginative responses to the world around.
Within the Fine Art and Design course students will be expected to build up a personal portfolio consisting of work created in a variety of suitable media: painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, lens based imagery, other forms of two dimensional and three dimensional imagery, critical and historical work. Choice of media will be dictated by individual research and resources available.
There will be particular ‘Research Days’ for outside visits to places of artistic interest and exhibitions. Personal research will be undertaken for homework.
The GCSE course is specifically designed to make it easier for students to organise their time effectively as the course is broken down into manageable components. But it is essential that students complete set tasks each week so that advice can be given to improve and refine the work journal in order for students to achieve a high grade at the end of year 11. The workload is consistent and if students work steadily over the course it is manageable. One benefit of this is that the Art GCSE exam is taken earlier than other GCSEs and there are no revision elements!
The School provides all necessary materials for the course, but students do need an A4 or A3 sketch book for homework and research purposes. It is also very useful for students to have a set of watercolour and acrylic paints for use at home, together with a basic range of brushes and tonal drawing pencils.
Assessment:
Unit 1: Personal portfolio in Art and Design: weighted at 60% of the qualification. This unit will involve students in:
* Generating and developing ideas informed by primary and contextual sources.
* Refining their ideas through experimenting with media, and developing and applying skills.
* Researching, recording, analysing and renewing their own and others' work.
* Selecting, creating, realising and presenting personally developed outcome(s).
Unit 2: Externally Set Assignment: weighted at 40% of the qualification
The Externally Set Assignment represents the culmination of the GCSE course. The assignment consists of different written and visual starting points, briefs, scenarios and stimuli. From these, one must be selected upon which to base their personal response within the allocated exam time.
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