Course Description

Mascalls Academy offers four separate A Level courses within the area of Art and Design, and students will be introduced to a wide variety of experiences exploring a range of media, techniques and processes, with candidates using sketchbooks and portfolios to underpin their work where appropriate.

Fine Art

Students will work in one or more areas of fine art design such as painting and drawing, mixed media including collage, sculpture, printmaking and installation.

Graphics

This course covers areas of graphic communication such as illustration, advertising, packaging design, communication and computer graphics.

Photography 

Students will study areas of photography design such as portraiture, landscape photography, still-life photography, photo-journalism and experimental imagery.

Textiles

Textile design in areas such as fashion, printed or dyed fabrics, constructed textiles and textile installation will be covered within this qualification.

Course Content

Year 12

Students will be introduced to a range of techniques and artists, and asked to produce a portfolio of work in response to the common theme, which they will develop in their own direction. This portfolio will be designed to document key skills and techniques students have accessed. In January of Year 12 students will start to develop Personal Investigation based projects which will form the bases for Component 1 investigations. Year 12 work will be submitted to support marks awarded for the Component 1 “Personal Investigation” project.

Year 13

Component 1: Personal investigation – This is a practical unit with written elements (1500-3000 words) in which students are given the opportunity to develop a personal investigation of their choice based on an issue, concept, theme or ideas leading to a finished piece. The investigation will involve students’ researching other artists’ work, both historic and contemporary.

Component 2: Controlled assessment – Students will be able to select a question from the exam paper and will be given eight weeks’ preparation time, which concludes with a fifteen-hour exam, in which to complete the final piece.

What could I do next?

Many of our Art students go onto Foundation Courses at local or London colleges with whom we have close contact and from there to university, to specialise in the form of the arts most suited to their skills. The creative arts industry is one of the fastest growing employment sectors, and Art students can expect a range of job opportunities – either establishing themselves as artists, designers and photographers in their own right or through working in a gallery, museum, in theatre, film, advertising, marketing, therapy, teaching, publishing or illustrating – to mention just a few.