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Art makes an essential contribution to the full range of human intelligence and offers a means of deep personal enrichment. There is a wide range of aesthetic opportunities and acquisition of skills available at each key stage to suit the aptitudes and interests of the girls across a range of projects. The Art Department has two full-time and one part-time member of staff. All classes are taught as mixed ability groups in specialist accommodation located in The Haystacks building.
Key Stage 3:
All pupils follow an art education up to the end of KS3. In Year 7, care is taken to ease the transition from primary to secondary art education through diagnostic discussion and paced introduction to activities designed to build confidence across the ability range. Development and refinement of skills continues in Year 8. Year 9 is of crucial importance in preparing pupils for their choices of examination options in Years 10 and 11. Each year there is a healthy uptake of students opting to take GCSE Art. Throughout the key stage, projects are designed to equip all pupils with subject skills in a range of media but, perhaps more importantly, to engender a visual curiosity of the world.
Art trip to the National Marine Aquarium, 2012.
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Key Stage 4:
At GCSE we follow the OCR Fine Art option. This consists of coursework (60%) and a terminal examination (40%.)
Coursework; 60%. In Year 10 all pupils produce open ended projects that are determined by the department head. These are thematically based and developed by subject teachers in response to the diverse needs of their students.
Key Stage 5:
At AS we follow the OCR fine Art course. This consists of coursework and a terminal examination in a similar manner to GCSE. Coursework accounts for 60% of the qualification and 40% is given to a timed examination (5 hours.) At A2 there is additionally a Personal Study to complete. This consists of an in-depth analysis of an artist/exhibition that the pupil has had first hand experience of usually presented in an illustrated essay format.
As with AS 40% of the marks are made up of a practical examination in which the pupils are given up to 6 weeks of preparatory time and must then complete their final timed piece in no more than 15 hours.
View the New York Trip 2010 page
View the Art Department Gallery
Click on the image to view recent Art work by Miss Beard's groups.
