Positive stories Photography GCSE

[Vegetablestastebetterinbatter]

DS choosing options year 9.
He's bright but he is not academic and he is not on track to get high grades.
But he's really applied, is taking his options seriously, and really wants to do the best he can at school. Whilst his recent year 9 assessment grades were all low unfortunately, his 'attitude to learning' for every subject was graded at good to very good by every teacher.
He has 2 free choice GCSEs.
For one of those he's chosen Religion, Philosophy & Theology for one subject because he has a real interest in this. He doesn't have a set religious belief himself, he is open minded, and he is really interested in people's belief systems and how this influences their behaviour and their lives.
Next he's chosen Photography. For no other reason than he wants to do a creative subject to balance out his options. It's 100% coursework. He thinks DT is too difficult because he doesn't understand the software programmes they're using in DT in year 9. Isn't in to dance. Loves drama and is good at it but not as a GCSE course - too self conscious to be examined on his performing skills. Hates the Art GCSE teacher at school to the point that he wouldn't enjoy a GCSE course with her, and to be fair, having met her several times, I can see why he does.
A bit neither here nor there about Food Tech.
So all this leaves in the creative subjects is Photography which DS says he fancies learning and developing skills in, and he really likes the teacher.
I met up a mum friend whose DC in year 11 has done Photography and all she said was negativity about Photography GCSE. That it's basically 99% a computer course. That it breeds over perfectionism. That students are forever told to keep on improving their portfolios. That it's an enormous time drainer. That the coursework overwhelmed her DC and blocked them from being able to revise.
Then I looked on MN and there was quite a bit of negativity too.
So now I'm really worried.
Does anyone have any positive Photography GCSE stories to share?

You can do gcse drama without a lot of assessment of performance. You can choose tech or set design etc

My DD really enjoyed GCSE photography, coming out of it with a really high grade 8 (would have been a 9 in the previous year). It is true that it's very open ended, so there's always more work that you could add to improve your portfolio. However, my DD found that it was less time intensive than Art. Also, DD found that it was more flexible than Art.

It is generally all digital photography now, so there's plenty of computer work and lots of writing too for the portfolio. It's not a subject for students who want to coast for the first year and then try to play catch up.

Edit to add that I wasn't implying that your DS would coast, just that it's a subject where students need to work from the start of year 10, rather than cramming in year 11.

My DD is coming to the end of her GCSE photography and to me it seems pretty dull and uninspiring - lots of photoshop and writing in detail about what you’ve done at each stage. At the last parents evening where the teacher was not very discreet with her mark sheet the majority of pupils appeared to be predicted grade 5 or below.

DD is predicted 7/8 but I suspect that’s because she’s very good at English/finds the written work easy. I don’t think it is as creative as you might think.

At the end of the day it's one subject where he doesn't have to use his brain in the same way as the other subjects. It's a course where he has to think completely differently to the rest of what he's doing.
Plus if he goes into advertising, web design, pr, whatever, in fact I would have found it useful with the last role I did when I worked for an insurance company.

If he sets up his own business, becomes an estate agent, he will find an appreciation of what makes a good photo important

Art and Photography teacher here-
Depnding on the school, he should learn how to work a DSLR camera correctly, aperture etc. Some don't
Look at studio setting up: lighting, positioning, directing a model
Photoshop: using a computer to manipulate and alter his own images
Photographer analysis: analysing and understand photographers work and being inspired by them with jis choice of photoshoot.
I would normally give a project title, suggested photographers but students can choose their own which we explore. The student then creates their own photoshoots and plans to adapt them using skills in the Photography studio and in Photoshop. Year 10 can be workshop based to learn the necessary knowledge and then it leads on to a project. In my experience, students who are interested and eager to be creative will plan more interesting and risk taking outcomes- reaching the higher grades.
It is coursework based, depending on the exam board there is usually an exam at the end but it is making an outcome on photoshop which they will have prepared for before the exam day. It is good for students who like to review their work, and then refine it. Having a predominantly coursework subject can be good as one less exam to revise for when focusing on all the others. Bad side is you have to use every lesson and homework to your advantage to do the coursework, you can't just cram at the end.

I did GCSE photography but it was pre digital cameras and my course didn't involve writing anything. It was more like art but with photographs - we got to develop our own images from negatives and I remember cutting up photographs and mixing them with newspaper like a cubist style. It certainly didn't take over my life and was a nice break from the more academic subjects.

Probably worth investigating exactly what's involved with the exam board your school uses. Personally I like doing stuff with photoshop!

I would look at which exam board photography course it is?
My son did very well (9) last year on the AQA course, and he did quite a lot of hands on experimentation in the dark room before moving onto photoshop. When he did a taster day at college they followed the Edexcel course and it seemed very different content, more written work. It put him off continuing photography for A level.
Also find out if the photography is all done in a digital book? My son had all his gcse work in a physical book, but i know a lot of schools do it all digitally these days.
There is quite a lot of writing involved if they want to get higher grades.
My son enjoyed it, I think it’s definitely something to keep on top of the workload so it’s not a mad rush to finish it in the spring just before exams.

DC considered photography as a back up in case they couldn't do art, but chose to go with product design instead. From looking at the information leaflet there was too much of the digital manipulation for what they wanted. Their interest is more in composing/taking photographs. Friends are doing photography and seem to be enjoying it, but still yr 10.

DC is however doing drama. Didn't go to the drama talk at the options evening. DC does back stage at the musical and at the rehearsal the drama teacher said they were surprised not to see them. DC said they didn't want to be on stage, and was told they could do it ftom the design perspective. They have done one group project/performance for the drama teacher in a similar style to the one they will need to do for the coursework. They did it in a larger group than they will do for the actual piece. DC is focusing on sound, but other design options that can be chosen include lighting, stage and prop or costume ( including hair and make up). They do also study a play/plays which will be part of the written exam.

We were told to pick based on what they liked, what they felt they were good at, and what was relevant for future education/work plans.

My DS 16 coming up to GCSE's now. He's doing photography and has really enjoyed it. He's on course for a 8. He picked it as something different from the other subjects, it's creative and ultimately it's one less subject to revise for (he's dyslexic and struggles with revision). I think it was a good pick, we'll find out in a few months I guess!

DD enjoyed GCSE photography, got a grade 9 and is doing it now at A level. I don’t recognise the negative comments you’ve had, but obviously different kids like different things. As others have said, they have to put the work in from the beginning as it’s course work throughout, but the practical exam is a change from all of the cramming/essay type of
exams. It isn’t an ‘easy’ option, and there is a good amount of research and written work within the portfolio. But it’s a nice opportunity to be creative, within the confines of the assignment. A level has much more freedom of interpretation of assignments. Photography GCSE wasn’t DD’s favourite subject, but at A level it is.

DD is doing photography, there has been a lot of work but it’s spread out obviously and she hasn’t found it too intense. It’s been great for her because she chose it because she just had a good eye for photography but actually it’s steered her towards a career in fashion styling and is now going to fashion college.