Our core mission is to be a department that gives students the tools to become creative independent thinkers that take pride in their individual work. We want students to value the importance of photography and how it has helped and continues to help the world. It is there to inform, to document, to show truth, to be expressive, to be questioning, to be debated. We want our students to be a part of all it has to offer.
Students have 3 hours of lessons per week plus scheduled interventions. Students are also given access to the Adobe Suite and both Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras outside of lesson time. The expectation is that all students will have basic IT skills (basic knowledge of Google Drive, creating and saving folders, uploading and downloading files. basic Photoshop such as creating layers, minor adjustments, basic tools) and a knowledge of Art history (analysing a piece of work and being able to research and add facts and also express an opinion).
They are expected to be able to think creatively and independently whilst being led to develop their skills whilst taking risks and problem solving. The course is a combination of art, ICT, science and english. Pupils who struggle in any of these areas are given support tasks to learn strategies to help them build upon their skills but there is also an expectation to do work outside of lesson time to build resources and develop work further for personal portfolios.
All students have access to a school Google Drive account with unlimited storage and are also given an SD Card, SD card reader and folders for different projects.
All students complete 3 coursework projects over Year 10 and Year 11; Foundation, Juxtaposition and Fragments. This coursework is worth 60% of their final GCSE grade. Students will complete a one day (5 hour) examination/ mock at the end of year 10.
In year 11 the externally set assessment is 10 Hours. This makes up the final 40% of their grade and is a controlled project over 10 weeks that ends with a final piece made over 2 days.
The following assessment areas will be addressed.
Edexcel GCSE Art & Design Photography 1PY0
The A Level is a 2 year course. It is a combination of practical, digital, investigative and developmental photographic work and analysis.
In Year 12 students are taught a variety of technical and digital skills to build their expertise but also encourage them to develop their own style of work. Year 12 is more teacher-led and students are expected to work outside of the 5 hour lesson time for an additional 5 hours per week to complete tasks and build their portfolios. Students create a body of work covering the following assessment areas.
They will create a physical and digital portfolio throughout the year based on the topic Real and Artificial to help them to develop a focus for their Y13 Independent Study. Students will complete a two-day (10 hours) examination/ mock at the end of year 12.
In Y13 students create an Independent Study worth 60% on a topic of their choice where they write a thesis alongside their practical work investigating a theme linked to Photography. After Y12 students will be self aware of the style and topic they have chosen to investigate so the lessons are less teacher led. They will work on challenging a series of questions through which their practical work will document their conclusions. They are marked on the same Assessment Objectives as in Year 12. In year 13 the externally set assignment is 15 Hours and worth the final 40%.
Edexcel A-Level Art & Design Photography 9PY0
All work is presented in a digital portfolio that is shared with your teacher. Students also have a folder that they can present their practical work. Resources and templates are all shared in a Google classroom.
