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Secondary education

GCSE Textiles (Art & Design) advice please

6 replies

ittakes2 · 11/03/2020 08:43

I would be grateful for advice please from people whose children have taken GCSE Textiles. My daughter's school offers the Art & Design Textiles.

My daughter is keen to do something at Uni such as the College of Fashion's makeup and hair course which encourages applicants to have at least one A level in Design, Art, Fashion, Media etc. Her school has a computer programme to help with GCSE choices and her results are always steering her to the Arts.

Her school offers both Art and Textiles and we feel she should choose one of these to make sure she has options for A levels. My daughter doesn't feel confident in Art and prefers Textiles. She has wanted to do Textiles for a number of years but unfortunately the Textile teachers have put her off as apparently they are very shouty so she is a bit nervous about taking Textiles. I have encouraged her not to make her decision based on the teachers - its likely once she starts the course she will develop a better relationship with them.

She is also feeling nervous about Textiles as she is worried her skills are not as good as the other girls - she will start Textiles in Year 9 so I have assured her she has plenty of time to improve her sewing. Although I am a bit worried that she has not done enough sewing to know if she enjoys it as much as she might need to.

I have asked her what she would do instead if she doesn't take Textiles and there is nothing else she is super keen to do. I also think it would limit her Art A level options if she does not take an Art subject.

I have read a lot on mumsnet about how Art is a lot of work - I know that Textiles is likely to be more work than other subjects but does anyone have any idea please if they are similar work loads? Art sounds very onerous and I am hoping Textiles is not as bad.

She hopes to do Business at A level - we have steered her away from Business as a GCSE because she really needs an Art GCSE if she wants to do an Art A level. But part of me is wondering if it would be easier for her to do a Business GCSE and then do an extra year after A level to get into the uni programme she wants (you can do a pre year if you don't have the right A levels).

She has do a language and she has chosen GCSE Spanish and she is also doing History and Dance (Dance is the subject she is doing for fun - she takes dance out of school and has since she was 4).

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Houndsofhello · 11/03/2020 09:18

Do you mean that your daughter would like to do a course at UAL: London College of Fashion?

I’m sure you’ll get lots of help on here but it would probably be useful to call the college too.

I’d say that textiles is less useful than art if she’s certain she wants to do the hair and makeup course but that’s just a guess.

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Malmontar · 11/03/2020 10:11

I did GCSE textiles in 2009 and from what I know it hasn't changed that much. I also did art and I would say textiles was less work. It is much quicker to make something on a sewing machine than to paint/draw etc. Your sewing skills improve v quickly so I wouldn't worry about that too much. If you can, get her a cheap sewing machine. Lots available secondhand and it's really useful to have over the summer/when she doesn't want to stay at school.
The only thing I would say is that it's v hard to recruit a good textiles teacher. Ours left on maternity mid y10 and it was a nightmare.

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ittakes2 · 11/03/2020 14:16

Thanks Malmontar that is very helpful.

Thanks Houndsofhello, yes London college of fashion. They were the first people I thought to call but unfortunately the person I spoke to was unhelpful to the point of bordering on rude unfortunately!

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hellypad · 11/03/2020 16:25

Hi, my dd is in year 10 and is taking this GCSE, she is really creative and also loves fashion and has thought about working in the industry too. She decided to do this as a GCSE rather than art due to the amount of course work in art. At the moment it was absolutely the right decision, she loves it. She gets to be really creative in her designs, they are doing space themed clothing at the moment, the homework is really manageable. All of the actual sewing and making is done in school as that is where the equipment is, so there is support if they need it. I actually think it is more creative than art as they can do whatever they like as long as it is the theme.

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hellypad · 11/03/2020 16:26

Funnily enough DD is doing business as well, she finds it a bit dull but pretty easy.

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ittakes2 · 12/03/2020 09:21

Thanks very much Hellypad, I am pleased you have also said its less work than art.

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