Art & Design – Fine Art

Successful A level Art students can go on to study on a range of Art & Design foundation and degree courses, nationally and internationally, and train in their area of specialisation, before going on to become an Artist, Designer, Architect, or Arts Professional in a broad variety of specialist areas.

The creative and cultural Arts industries express and reflect the importance of creativity and culture in our society. All around us artists create the world we inhabit, and contribute to a thriving and important industry which has a vast range of exciting career options and choices. These can include working in Fine Art, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, or Architecture, for example, as well as many other possible creative Art & Design jobs and careers.

Architecture at Westminster
Architecture at Kingston
Architecture at Edinburgh
Interior Design at Camberwell
Foundation in art at Camberwell
Illustration at UAL

A strong Art training can also develop highly valuable transferable skills, including creative ideas development, independent problem-solving, contextual interpretation, and visual communication, as well as organisational, presentation, and team-working skills.

English Literature
Politics
Medicine
Computer science
Law
Psychology
Business

You will have six periods a week of taught lessons which are normally three double lessons. We expect you to arrive punctually, ready to work and equipped with materials you need to complete work. As an Advanced Level student, you must be independent and working ambitiously outside of your sketchbook, making artwork in response to your area of interest that stretches and challenges you.

Sketchbooks are vital and are used mostly outside of lessons for you to push independent work forward. Research and writing is on-going throughout the course and most of this will be completed in your own time.

Art trips are arranged throughout the year to central London galleries and students are encouraged to visit and document relevant exhibitions independently in their own time.

Students receive feedback regularly throughout the course so that they are clear about how to progress and develop their ideas further. Feedback takes a variety of forms: written assessment and next steps advice, self assessment, one-to-one tutorials, and group critiques in which students present their work to their peers.

The coursework unit (Personal Investigation) forms 60% of the overall mark for A-Level. Students begin developing ideas for this in year 12 and complete this component in the autumn and spring terms in year 13. The externally set exam component is completed in the summer term of year 13 and is worth 40% of the overall mark for the A-Level.

All student work will be assessed against the following Assessment Objectives.

• Assessment Objective 1 – Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding
• Assessment Objective 2 – Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops
• Assessment Objective 3 – Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress
• Assessment Objective 4 – Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements

How much time should I be expected to spend on assignments, projects, field trips etc.?

It’s important that you complete five hours of homework per week including research and practical. With your fellow students you will organise group visits to galleries at least once every half term.

AQA Fine Art 7202