AIBU to discourage my son from dropping GCSE art now?

[Bloomsburygirl]

My 15 year old DS wants to be a fashion designer. He is currently doing GCSE art but hates it. He loves designing fashions but dislikes painting, charcoal drawing etc. He wants to do A levels at King's Ely, but to get a place on the fashion and textiles course, he needs at least a 6 or above in GCSE art. They will consider a portfolio but only in exceptional circumstances. He has now decided he wants to drop GCSE art, despite the fact that King's Ely has pretty much said that the chances of him getting in without the required GCSEs are virtually non-existent. The fact that he has dropped art at this level will count against him, and entrance into the course is very competitive.

He has spent all Easter holidays working on one design, sometimes up to 10 hours per day. This is instead of doing his art portfolio. His other GCSE subjects are well on track - he is in the top sets for most of his subjects. AIBU to discourage him from dropping the one subject he needs to go to King's Ely or most other F&T courses? Or is this a case of letting him make his own decision, and his life will work out accordingly? When does a parent have to let go of the reins and let their child make their own decisions and possibly make mistakes? Please be gentle as I am just trying to be a good parent and support him. Should I back off and let him decide his own choices from now or do I intervene? What if it all goes wrong and he blames us for not guiding him?

Thank you for reading.

Well he knows the consequences of dropping art so I’d let him. If he wanted to do law or maths and was risking his chances there I might be more bothered, but if he loses the chance to join a textiles course and has to do something else I couldn’t bring myself to be that bothered.

What course does he think he can get on to instead, if he drops Art?

What will he do during the Art lessons in school and will the school allow it?

It isn’t as simple as just dropping the subject. He has to be somewhere during the timetabled lessons and he will need to be supervised, so not always as straightforward as you may think.

He is at a private school, so he says he can do guided study. He refuses to consider a back-up plan. As far as he's concerned, they will be dazzled by his portfolio and admit him. And being 15, he is well into 'the age of infinite wisdom' and nothing his father or I say is correct.

If you know that it’ll balls up his dream (if it really is still his dream) and what he’s been working towards then you just say ‘no’.

He needs a proper discussion on how there are many things in your working that you don’t like and/or are difficult. That knuckling down and getting his required grade is one of these times to learn about how to motivate himself and push through something he isn’t good at. There are essential work skills.

Could he do the textiles variant of art rather than fine art?

Perhaps he should do a level 3 fashion and textile design btec?

I honestly have tried - he will not listen. This is why I am so stumped - he just thinks he knows better than anyone.

Can his School talk to him?

Yes, but only at A level, and King's Ely is one of the few schools that offer this. None of the state schools in my area offers textiles at A-level.

They've tried, but thank you for suggesting.

Have things changed much over the years? (Genuine question)

I did graphic design without a GCSE in art.

I would say though, you need to get him out of his bubble of hating art. Get him out for inspiration. Go to a cool arty gallery, textiles day out?, anywhere for that "excitement" and idea generation.

Sometimes a change of scenery or one special trip somewhere is enough to spark something new.

Long Road does (assuming you are Cambs since you're looking at Kings Ely):

https://www.longroad.ac.uk/art-a-level

Minimum Entry Requirements
Five GCSEs at Grade 5 including:
Grade 5 in GCSE Art*
Grade 4 in GCSE English Language or GCSE English Literature

• If GCSE Art has not been completed, a portfolio may be accepted for consideration by the Course Team

My DS is currently studying fashion design at uni. He did Textiles GCSE, then at A level he did textiles, and art alevels alongside BTEC business. And then did art foundation for get to the uni he wanted to go to. He’s been targeting fashion design since he was doing GCSEs. DS also struggled with the expectations of art at GCSE and Alevels. So much is about the process, the documentation in the sketchbook etc and DS was always more interested in the making. He found it hard to explain where his ideas came from. He was resistant to advice from teachers and that the mark scheme meant there were a lot of marks for the process. He was also disorganised and used to fall behind in the admin side of keeping the sketchbook up to date. His final pieces were always exceptional. His marks at A level were ok but not what he could have got. He wised up while doing his art foundation as he was so focused on getting his result and getting into his top choice uni and he listened to the tutor who told him it must be documented correctly. The course structure also suited him much better. It’s art school rather than school.

With regards to your DS - I suspect he’s so far behind on his sketchbook he’s given up. Try to get him to stay the course and do enough to get the 6 if that’s what he needs for next stage. He’s unlikely to have amazing portfolio compared to others with 9s at GCSE especially for doing Alevel. It’s more of the same - he’s not going to do well at a level if he hasn’t done well at gcse. And school will know that too. There are alternatives … do different a levels and do textiles as a hobby. Do art foundation at 18 instead. Or ditch a levels and go to a local college to do a BTEC in art - courts as 3 a levels/gives ucas points. Different learning style and may suit him better.

For uni applications, most were looking for certain grades/ucas points and all required a specific tailored portfolio of work. Some accepted foundation results towards UCAS points and a few specifically required an art foundation.

Art foundation was when DS actually got to love what he was doing.

I would strongly discourage him but at the end of the day if he doesn’t listen to you he will only have himself to blame

To be fair to the ops son, GCSE art, or actually, lots of them actively turn kids off the subject. Its incredibly sad. My dd now hates reading because of the style of the English GCSE, art because of the weird dichotomy between 'you can do anything' and the prescription of what each bit of coursework has to contain, history she didn't even take because the spec at her school is very narrow and not her kind of history. Its awful. I teach teens. I see it all the time. I wish there was a truly radical shake up of the system so we could truly embody the idea of not judging a fish on its ability to climb a tree. Maybe a multi faceted project that could incorporate elements of maths, literacy, geographical, historical and political knowledge or research, or the more creative aspect with a multi discipline approach. Like an EPQ but with more check in stops for younger pupils. A long-term thing with teachers more as advisors than teaching a set curriculum. More dynamic.
OP...I would encourage your s@on to approach King's and have a chat with them. Private schools can choose to be as flexible as they like..he has to convince them. If he can't, then you need to set it out for him like a flow chart. If you do x then y. If you do A then B. Then its up to.him.

He really has my sympathy! Art GCSE nearly broke my son and me. He’s at a specialist 6th form doing a particular art subject and has been accepted on a really good related art degree course but I feel like I still have PTSD symptoms from the art GCSE portfolio.
I agree with PP that art gets completely overwhelming but if he only needs a 6 and he’s good at art then maybe you could break the marks down together and make it seem more manageable.
I presume he’s year 10 so has got a year to go? If he could see it in a more pragmatic light - just something he has to get through and he doesn’t need to be perfectionist about it (that was a lot of my son’s trouble with it) then that might help.

Very difficult but he seems to have made his own mind up. You can't force him into it, surely the whole point is that he's doing something he loves. If he hates it, he won't go any further with it. I would explain the point of doing the whole course (ie a broad understanding of a variety of methods and media before specialising) and the ramifications of his opting out. Then guide him: tell him you'd be happier if he did it, but that you can't make him. The let him decide. And let him deal with the outcome. And if he doesn't get in, resist the 'i told you so', however difficult. Our jobs as parents is to give them the tools to live their own lives and to guide them where appropriate, not to live their lives for them. Good luck.

I will just add - if you explain it to him, and he chooses to drop it and can’t do the a level, he has not lost the opportunity to do fashion design. He then needs to find a way to do relevant things alongside as extra curricular and plan for a portfolio by Jan of year 13. (There are summer courses that can help with that too). Then apply for foundation (free tuition under 19 in England/wales) and can be done at local colleges or some unis. Then apply for fashion design with foundation

Can you discuss with art teacher to see if they can shoehorn fashion drawings into his course

I think if they refuse to take him on a technicality, I'd be inclined to question that. I am only saying it because I did an art degree as a mature student and there will, presumably, be other mature students entering the same uni course and nobody will be expecting them to present GCSE results. They will all come in with portfolios, as did I.
Another question is whether his portfolio is as strong as he thinks...

ETA, I realised after posting that you were talking about A levels entry. No advice about that, sorry. But it still may be helpful to think that he can attend uni later even if he studies something else for a levels.

“He wants to do A levels at King's Ely, but to get a place on the fashion and textiles course, he needs at least a 6 or above in GCSE art. They will consider a portfolio but only in exceptional circumstances.”

“He has now decided he wants to drop GCSE art, despite the fact that King's Ely has pretty much said that the chances of him getting in without the required GCSEs are virtually non-existent.”

Can you get King’s Ely to put it in writing, and give examples of ‘exceptional circumstances’?

Hating the format of GCSE art is probably not what they mean. I do understand, my children both did GCSE art and it was a grind, the projects were all very narrow and focused on technique, but had little scope to be really creative, and involved a lot of writing and researching other artists. A huge difference to the kind of stuff I did in my art o level and a level.

Personally I’d be encouraging him to finish it and get a decent grade, it doesn’t matter how dazzling his portfolio is, he also needs to prove he can put in the work, and finish what he’s started.

Specifically which art gcse is he doing? There are variants. Does his school do gcse design and technology? That’s where textiles can also come under.

Could you ask to meet with the textiles teacher at Kings Ely? They might give you half an hour to chat through his portfolio so far, and encourage your son to carry on with his GCSE. It’s not just the practical, the theory and art history stuff is important too. I imagine if he has a chat with his art teacher he can do his gcse with a fashion leaning. ie make work inspired by designers he likes etc.

Could he quickly use fashion design stuff he has done outside GCSE Art to do a Gold Arts Award? You can do it yourselves outside a school, for example here: www.artsawardinitiative.co.uk
Silver is actually the 'Level 2' Arts Award but Gold might look more impressive!(AA is a 'proper qualification' and Silver expects the same level of work as GCSE at 4 or above, but it isn't equivalent to GCSE as it takes fewer hours and covers different stuff).