Art & Design

Head of Department: Mr M Yeates

Art & Design is taught from Year 7, and can be continued as a GCSE option. Photography is also taught as a GCSE option.

Equipment KS3

In addition to school essentials, it would be an advantage for pupils to have a range of drawing pencils including softer 4B pencils, a glue stick and a small set of colouring pencils. An apron will also be useful during messier lessons! Pupils in Years 7 & 8 will need to purchase 2 A4 sketchbooks at the start of the course at a cost of £1.00 each. A letter about this will be sent out at the start of term. Year 9 will be working in larger, A3 sized sketchbooks in class and the usual A4 sized sketchbook for homework. There will be a charge of £3 for the year for these sketchbooks. 

Visits / Extra-Curricular opportunities KS3

There are often Art Clubs for KS3 pupils. Please check the latest after-school activities information for news of these.

Year 7

Pupils will cover a wide range of techniques, themes and concepts over the course of the year and start to unpick the various codes and conventions used in the visual world. Sometimes these are supplemented by additional projects that respond to current events or opportunities that appear within the school year:

We will cover the following;

Drawing skills – The key focus of the year is to increase confidence in drawing. Pupils will be learning the process of drawing including: how to hold the pencil; how to use contour and tone to record shape accurately and how to build detail and texture in stages. They will also experience drawing with a range of materials and to both small and large scales.

The Formal Elements – Line, tone, perspective, proportion, composition etc. These skills are taught and consolidated over much of the year’s work.

Paint and Colour – Pupils will explore atmosphere, memory, emotion and feeling through mark making and colour mixing.

3D – Pupils will explore construction techniques using card, wire and paper mache.

Collaboration – Pupils will work collaboratively to produce large-scale items for display

Printmaking – Pupils will engage with the skills of printmaking and look at ideas around simple compositional elements.

Typography – Pupils will learn about creative fonts and the design skills required to produce interesting design

Groupings

Lessons are taught in tutor groups.

Homework

Art homework in Year 7 will be set as tasks that build into Art historical projects. These projects will continue into Years 8 and 9, forming a comprehensive study of Art and Design from Ancient Egypt to contemporary art.

The tasks set will vary, focusing sometimes on practical art making and sometimes on research and analysis skills.

Homework will be set at least every three weeks and the tasks themselves will be set on ShowMyHomework.

Year 8

Pupils will cover the areas below over the course of the year. Sometimes these are supplemented by additional projects that respond to current events or opportunities that appear within the school year.

In Art and Design during the autumn term, Year 8 will focus on themes of portraiture and the figure.

They will produce self-portraits, fashion designs and comic book cover designs as part of these themes and also learn illustration techniques using Photoshop.

The spring term will focus on 3D, in particular how to work in clay.

They will then conclude the year in the summer term by further developing observational drawing and painting skills through a still life project.

Groupings    

Lessons are taught in tutor groups.  

Homework

In homework, Year 8 will continue to build their Art History projects by recapping the Renaissance and moving on to the Baroque, Romantic, Impressionist and Cubist periods. These projects will continue into Year 9, forming a comprehensive study of Art and Design from Ancient Egypt to contemporary art.

The tasks set will vary, focusing sometimes on practical art making and sometimes on research and analysis skills

Homework will be set at least every fortnight and the tasks themselves can be found on Show My Homework via the school website.

Year 9

Classwork

Pupils will cover the schemes of work described below over the course of the year. Sometimes these are supplemented by additional projects that respond to current events or opportunities that appear within the school year.

Autumn term: Pupils will explore tonal drawing and Photoshop illustration, mixed media and abstraction in art followed by a printmaking project inspired by German Expressionism.

Spring term: The spring term will be spent looking at collage, drawing and brush techniques through Surrealist illustration followed by an introduction to digital photography.

Summer: Pupils will try wire and card sculpture before finishing the year designing T-Shirts for Sports day.

Homework

For homework, Year 9 will cover the 20th century art movements of Expressionism, Abstract art, Surrealism, Pop Art and Photography. The homework set will often complement and work in tandem with class projects. Homework will be set on Show My Homework.

Groupings

Pupils may be taught in tutor groups or mixed ability teaching grous.

Years 10 & 11

ART & DESIGN

Course Content

GCSE Art and Design offers pupils a chance to deepen knowledge and build on skills covered in KS3 but explore themes and meanings in art that are far more personal to them.

In Year 10, terms 1 and 2 will be spent investigating techniques such as drawing, acrylic painting, illustration, mono and dry-point printing. These terms will also be spent looking at themes and generating ideas and how to present learning for assessment.

During terms 3 and 4, pupils will complete their coursework unit. This unit will be worth 60% of their final grade. Pupils will;

• Respond to a choice of themes, generating and recording ideas.
• Identify artists / movements they feel are inspirational and linked to their theme or technical interests.
• Develop and experiment with their ideas.
• Refine ideas and realise them into a coherent final piece.

During term 5 and part of term 6, pupils will complete their ESA (Externally Set Assignment).  This will again be an extended project but this time worth 40% of the final grade. It will start by responding to a choice of themes set by the exam board, have a period of roughly 11 weeks developing, exploring and planning before a final exam of 10 hours spread over 2 school days.

Shortly after finishing their exam, pupils will help curate an end of course exhibition.

Homework

Homework will be set regularly. Tasks will vary from presenting learning and progress, researching, generating ideas or getting out on location to take source photographs. Pupils who need complete work requiring space and very messy materials will be able to access studios after school.

Equipment

We encourage parents / guardians to purchase the ‘Art Starter Pack’ which includes a variety of equipment at a very reasonable price. If you do not choose this option, please make your child has the following;

Pupils will need the following equipment;

• A3 sketchbooks with good quality paper. Makes to go for are Daler Rowney, Windsor and Newton or Seawhites. Do not purchase A3 sketchbooks from ‘The Works’ in Cambridge as the paper quality is not good.
• A set of good quality drawing pencils ranging from HB to at least 6B. Drawing pens, most importantly in black ink.
• Small set of acrylic and watercolour paints and brushes.
• Basic stationary such as glue sticks, scissors etc.

Depending on the personal directions pupils take, they may need to acquire other, more specialist equipment along the way such as canvasses, specialist papers etc.

Visits/Extra-curricular

We will certainly be visiting galleries and museum in London and locally. During Year 10 pupils will have the opportunity to visit Berlin on a 4 day combined Art and History trip.

There will be no formal extra-curricular opportunities for KS4 but pupils will be welcome, with teacher’s consent, to access studios after school.

 

PHOTOGRAPHY

Course Content

GCSE Photography offers pupils a chance to deepen their knowledge of creative device (phone) photography as well as learning DLSR photography, exploring themes and meanings that are personal to them.

Terms 1 and 2 will be spent investigating and learning creative and formal techniques in device and DSLR photography, Photoshop and mixed media photo manipulation. These terms will also be spent looking at themes and generating ideas and how to present learning for assessment. Term 3 will be spent starting coursework. Pupils will identify photographers / artists / movements they feel are inspirational or linked to their technical interests. They will complete in-depth studies into both contexts of photographic creation and processes.

Homework

Homework will be set regularly and it is essential pupils are consistent with handing in on time and the quality of their work as this forms part of their coursework and directly affects their final GCSE grade. Tasks will vary from presenting learning and progress, researching, generating ideas or getting out on location to take source photographs. Pupils who need to complete work requiring Photoshop or camera equipment will be able to access studios after school.

Equipment

Pupils will need the following equipment for all lessons;

• An online account with photobox.com or similar to regularly order prints of their work from.
• A large USB memory stick (16GB or over) for storing RAW images and photos.
• Basic stationary such as drawing pencils, pen, glue sticks, scissors etc.
• All cables (USB lead) for connecting camera or phone device to PC to download work quickly in school.
• A Camera;
• As a bare minimum, a charged, high quality camera phone with editing apps such as snapseed and slow shutter downloaded.
• Ideally, a DSLR camera or digital camera that is capable of manually changing the settings (ISO, aperture and shutter speed). Please ask if you need advice buying a camera.
• Pupils will produce a portfolio of work, some will work on a digital portfolio and some will prefer a sketchbook to present their work. Those using a sketchbook are recommended to buy an A3 black paper sketchbook with good quality paper. Brands to go for are Daler Rowney, Windsor and Newton or Seawhites. Do not purchase A3 sketchbooks from ‘The Works’ in Cambridge as the paper quality is not good. Pupils will be able to purchase sketchbooks from the school at a reasonable price.

Depending on the personal directions pupils take, they may need to acquire other, more specialist equipment along the way.

Visits/Extra-curricular

Plans for trips are currently being formed. We will certainly be visiting galleries and museum in London and we hope to be visiting a European city to broaden our artistic experiences. There will be no formal extra-curricular opportunities for KS4 but pupils will be welcome, with teacher’s consent, to access studios after school.