AS/A Level Art and Design

Are you looking for a career in art and design? Would you like to develop your knowledge and skills with a variety of techniques and materials?

This course has been designed for a wide range of students who want an advanced level Art and Design course. It prepares you for Higher Education and employment, as well as developing your creative practice. The course is both rewarding and challenging, encompassing a wide variety of topics, detailed below.

The course can be taken as part of a full-time programme of study in conjunction with other AS subjects, or possibly with other Level 3 qualifications.

This course will give you a firm understanding of the techniques and processes involved in a wide range of art and design disciplines. You will have the opportunity to study and practise in areas such as painting, drawing, print-making, constructing, modelling, fabricating, and handling traditional and contemporary media. All students will be able to improve their understanding of materials, techniques and tools, as well as their skills in inventing, investigating, improvising, planning, designing, and using historical and contemporary influences.

The AS represents the first year of a two year A level qualification but it can be studied separately. It consists of one unit:

• Unit 1: Personal Creative Enquiry (40% of A level), internally assessed, externally moderated.

This unit consists of an extended, exploratory project/portfolio and outcome/s based on themes and subject matter which are personal and meaningful to the learner.

In the initial stage of Unit 1, learners will have the opportunity to explore and cultivate fundamental skills, knowledge and understanding through a variety of creative sessions, activities and experiences to help learners develop skills, from which personally significant creative enquiries can be generated as the course progresses.

There is also an emphasis on the value of drawing skills with a focus on encouraging learners to appreciate the significance of drawing in the widest sense by recognising and reviewing how it feeds the creative process across disciplines.

The A level consists of the AS Unit 1 plus two additional units:

• Unit 2: Personal Investigation (36% of A level), internally assessed, externally moderated.
• Unit 3: Externally Set Assignment (24% of A level), internally assessed, externally moderated.

Further information on these units will be available shortly.