Art & Design Department

Key Stage 4

GCSE Art consists of 2 Units of coursework worth 60% of the final grade and one externally set exam worth 40% of the final grade. All work produced in the 2 year course is assessed and is considered as coursework/exam.

Year 10 – Landscape

Students begin the course by exploring the theme “Landscape” in a variety of media such as ink, pen, collage, watercolour, acrylic, oil pastel, chalk pastel and clay etc. They use a selection of artist’s including Van Gogh and Monet as sources of inspiration. This part of the course is designed to ensure student’s have a solid foundation of skills in a wide range of materials and techniques. This project also allows them the time to discover their personal areas of strength and weakness. This unit of work becomes merged with the “Natural World” Mock examination project to form Unit 1 of their coursework.

Year 10 - Self-Portrait (First half)

Students begin by studying the work of a self portrait painter. They recreate sections of their chosen artist’s work and annotate each study with their personal understanding of the colours and paint application used by themselves to recreate their artist’s work as accurately as possible. Once they have completed their studies they begin to draw and paint themselves in the style of their chosen artist. They then choose another artist who works in ink, pencil or pen and again produce studies of their artist’s self-portrait in the same medium (pen, pencil or ink). Again they then produce their own self portrait in the style of their artist. All work is backed up by images of their artist’s work and information about them on a separate sheet. This work becomes merged with the “Myself” Mock examination project to form Unit 2 of their coursework.

Year 10 – Natural World (Mock Examination)

This project is designed to mimic the exam to give students an opportunity to experience the 8 week preparation period culminating in a two day / 10 hour final piece.
Students are given an overview sheet outlining week by week the work they are expected to complete. Weekly deadlines for both classwork and homework are set and students are monitored carefully to ensure these deadlines are met.
During these 8 weeks students are expected to fully explore the theme “Natural World” with a variety of media investigations whilst allowing themselves to be inspired by the work of relevant artists. They should develop a number of ideas through to a final piece which they then produce under exam conditions over a two day period (10 hours).

Year 11 – Self-Portrait (second half)

This project continues over from year 10 as it will have only been started and left incomplete in order to begin the “Natural World” Mock examination.
Students begin by studying the work of a self portrait painter. They recreate sections of their chosen artist’s work and annotate each study with their personal understanding of the colours and paint application used by themselves to recreate their artist’s work as accurately as possible. Once they have completed their studies they begin to draw and paint themselves in the style of their chosen artist. They then choose another artist who works in ink, pencil or pen and again produce studies of their artist’s self-portrait in the same medium (pen, pencil or ink). Again they then produce their own self portrait in the style of their artist. All work is backed up by images of their artist’s work and information about them on a separate sheet. This work becomes merged with the “Myself” Mock examination project to form Unit 2 of their coursework.

Year 11 – “Myself” (Mock examination)

This project is designed to mimic the exam to give students an opportunity to experience the 8 week preparation period culminating in a two day / 10 hour final piece.
Students are given an overview sheet outlining week by week the work they are expected to complete. Weekly deadlines for both classwork and homework are set and students are monitored carefully to ensure these deadlines are met.
During these 8 weeks students are expected to fully explore the theme “Myself” with a variety of media investigations whilst allowing themselves to be inspired by the work of relevant artists. They should develop a number of ideas through to a final piece which they then produce under exam conditions over a two day period (10 hours).

Year 11 – Externally set Assignment

This is the final examination which is externally set each year by the exam board.  Students will receive an exam paper with a title or theme in which they will offer a number of suggestions as to how to interpret it.
Students will be expected to brainstorm the theme given and will be given an 8 week outline of tasks they will be expected to complete in order to meet the assessment criteria and develop their own ideas to a finished piece.
They will again have 10 hours to produce their own final idea.

Year 11 – Henry Moore

Student’s explore the work of Henry Moore both his sculptures and drawings. They create a research sheet on his work and recreate some of his drawings in the media of pen, pencil, charcoal and ink. They then choose a number of organic objects and draw them onto coloured wash backgrounds in the style of Henry Moore. Having drawn several individual objects they then select one and enlarge it on a new sheet of paper and again reproduce Henry Moore’s sketchy style of drawing.