At Bridgewater School Art, Craft and Design is taught across all age ranges at Key Stage 3 for one period a week, where all students are introduced to a range of materials under the Art & Design specification. In Year 7 pupils learn key skills and concepts covering topics such as The Colour Theory, The Human Form’ and ‘Cultures From Around the World’. Tone and colour feature strongly in class and each pupil completes a follow-up homework each week to extend their understanding and develop their artistic knowledge of the processes learnt.
Artist references feature throughout the course and help to develop pupil’s knowledge of a range of modern and contextual artists to inspire their own interpretations. As students progress into Year 8 and then respectively into Year 9, their allocation of Art lessons remains the same at one lesson per week. The work, however, becomes more topic based. Topics covered include The Pop Art Movement, Architecture and Cubism, alongside many of the associated artists. Homework activities and extension work allow pupils to develop their own creative responses centred around a universal theme.
GCSE Art & Design
At the end of Year 9, students can opt to follow a GCSE course where they are allocated five lessons over a two-week period in Year 10 and 11. Students follow the AQA specification for Art, Craft & Design and start to develop their own personal investigations centred on topical issues and subjects of interest, working to individual strengths. Students work in a range of media throughout the course and develop a range of skills such as print-making, fashion, painting and mixed media to explore a wide and diverse range of approaches.
GCSE Art is a popular subject at Bridgewater School, working within small groups and allowing for personal development and exploration throughout the course, alongside teacher specialist knowledge. The GCSE course consists of:
- 60% coursework (component 1: the portfolio)
- 40% examination (component 2: the externally set assignment).
At Bridgewater we continue to achieve 100% pass rate at both GCSE and A-level, with many students exceeding their predictions by up to 2 grades.
