Photography A-level Outside of School/College

[XelaM]

My daughter would love to do a Photography A-level, but her first choice college doesn't offer it, so she would have to try do it as a private candidate outside of college. Has anyone done this and can advise on who to contact about the practical element of the course?

I have contacted Tutors & Exams, as they allow you to sit Photography A-level through them, but only if you sign up with one of their approved schools/tutors for the practical element and their website gives an endless list of potential schools/tutors. Can anyone recommend one? They basically need to able to sign off on the coursework and I think do regular live sessions/monitor drafts etc.

She really enjoyed GCSE Art and I think will enjoy Photography.

Does her second choice offer it?

adult education may offer a photography course, probably won’t be a level but does it have to be?

How keen is your daughter to do this subject? Would she be prepared to go to a different college in order to take this subject?
What area are you? I think a tutor recommendation would need to be area dependent.
What about the equipment needed? If you are taking this course as a private candidate you may be expected to provide a lot of equipment yourself - camera (there are strict guidelines on the type needed), lap-top, printer, editing software etc. which would make it a very expensive option! Whereas in a College equipment would be provided.
At A level Art options tend to be transferrable. So if she takes another Art subject, can she take Photography later on? Have a look at post 18 options to check.

Would this be on top of three other A levels or equivalent? Might it be too much if so?

What exactly is the purpose if the photography A level? If it’s for interest then yes, there may be less intensive options. If it’s for uni grades then will she only be taking two others? Most colleges will not be keen on that.

Is this your dd who is also taking Russian @XelaM or have I got muddled? Apols if so.

She is doing Russian in Y12 hopefully and then just taking the normal 3 A-levels at college (she wants to go to a particular boarding college due to a sport interest she has). So if she finishes Russian in Y12 and photography/art always finish before the other exams start, so it won't be any different than a normal exam period if she was just doing 3. At least in my mind. From briefly looking at the Art/Photography spec, it appears to be a similar format to Art GCSE and that she really enjoyed and was a nice break from the other academic subjects. She does art/photos for pleasure anyway and even paints a bit on commission for a bit of extra cash.

I definitely will look into the equipment required for photography as it does sound expensive. I was thinking of an online tutor or online school like Kings InterHigh.

The exam period might not be any more heavy than normal without the photog and yr 12 Russian; but basically you are suggesting five A levels in terms of lessons and work outside lessons in year 12; and four in year 13 until the date of the early photog exam. For A levels it's as much about the work ongoingly as it is about the exam period.

A really bright DC can skim through KS4 doing classwork and then revising close to the GCSE exams, but there is no way you will get good results if you do that for A level.

Standard is five hours of lessons pw per subject and then at least five hours of further study per subject on top of that. That's 50 hours a week in year 12. And that's without the factor that photography as a creative subject might have a much higher demand outside lessons. I think it’s a lot.

What other subjects is she planning @XelaM ?

@clary Thank you. We are probably underestimating the workload. 😬 She wants to do Chemistry, Biology and PE at college.

Genuinely and I hate to be negative, but I think you may be.

MFL (my subject as you may know) even for a native speaker is a big ask and a lot of work in a year. I assume she has already started? I don't know the spec for Russian, but for French and German and Spanish it is topic based, so even the most fluent native speaker would need to learn a lot of stats and details; most 16yos, even if they have good language skills, IME need to do a lot of work on relevant vocab and politics/history (so German for example includes topics on the changing family, the fall of the Berlin wall, immigration and Germany and the EU). Assuming Russian is similar in style, I think she will have a lot to do to be ready for the A level by next April. More than possible but a lot of work.

If she is also doing the work for three other A levels she is going to be busy. There is overlap for sure with PE and biology, but all those three are a lot of work (well, all A levels are). Add to that (I assume) a good deal of training and competing for her sport. PE needs a good deal of outside work on the sport – tho I suppose that is covered by her training and competing.

Even if she is at boarding school, which I suppose means more time for prep as no travel and fewer evening distractions, she is going to have a lot to do. No way would I suggest adding to that with a fifth A level to work on. There's no need to take five and there's a reason very few YP do.