Art & Design
All students take Art as a GCSE, beginning in year 10. The AQA course we follow provides the opportunity for students to be ambitious and imaginative, and to experiment with materials they may have not used before. It helps students to broaden their knowledge of art and art-related issues and to make their own, personal, individual outcomes in response to this. The AQA GCSE course has two compulsory components - 60% of the total grade is Coursework, 40% is a Set Task.
To get started with their Coursework students will initially work on a series of workshop-based activities, which aim to build up self-confidence quickly, as the activities are designed to virtually guarantee impressive outcomes. Students then pick from a selection of themes and base their work in interpreting their chosen theme. They look at the work of other artists, make sketchbooks and scrap books, and experiment with different materials, gaining skills along the way and building up a coursework portfolio that reflects their individuality and their own personal interpretation of the theme they chose.
Students work on the Set Task from January of year 11. This is similar in structure to the work that has been done so far, but 7 themes are provided by AQA for the students to choose to work from. At the end of this project there is a compulsory 10 hour exam session, which we split over four days, where students complete their Set Task project.
How Parents and Carers can Help -
Take up any opportunities to participate in any arts-related activity – theatre, concert, visit to a museum or a gallery – and talk about favourite artists, musicians, films, books or performers as a family. This encourages students to broaden their experience of the arts and to think of themselves as possible practitioners or producers of art as well. If they bring work home to work on, try to provide an environment that makes this easy for them to focus, as well as praise and encouragement for their efforts. Celebrate the work if they bring it home too. Talk about the themes students might be working on in art, as this might provide opportunities for them to consider issues and ideas they might not have come up with on their own.
Contact - Andy Joseph (Creative Arts Coordinator)- andy.joseph@prus.newham.sch.uk
Links to Online Resources -
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/art-and-design/gcse