Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

If anyone's child is considering Art GCSE, a word to the wise.....<bitter experience>

121 replies

cyb · 14/02/2012 16:21

MAKE SURE your child keeps their art book up to date as the term progresses.

That means not only completeing the final pieces for each topic (which my D had done) but also all the research, photographs, reflections and investigations that led them to their final outcome (which my D has not done)

So this half term she has been working from 8.30am until 10pm to fill all the gaps in her bloody Art book

I am trying VERY hard not to say I TOLD YOU SO and I'm choking, frankly

She thinks she's going shopping in Camden market tomorrow

CHINNY RECKON

OP posts:

ChocolateCherry · 25/04/2015 09:52

My ds loved art and was a talented sketcher and painter, but art GCSE seems to have stopped him enjoying it.

Oh how this resonates. My dd has had exactly the same experience. Not sure of her overall result yet, but she has, with huge relief just finished the last bit.

I know she regretted taking it. I regret encouraging her to take it.

I also loved art at school and was pretty good at it. But the gcse curriculum dd has just done was nothing more than repetitive slog and I can't believe how much 'copying' and 'copying in the style of..' they've had to do. And yet basic concepts like perspective have not been covered.

Also, no art trips I was probably lucky all those years ago, but my art teacher was always hauling us off to exhibitions.

For a visual exciting subject it's quite astonishing how awful the gcse manages to make it

3littlefrogs · 25/04/2015 10:04

DD is a talented artist and musician.
She found Art GCSE very time consuming - the heaviest work load of all her GCSE subjects, and she dropped music because the GCSE course was sucking all the pleasure and enjoyment out of it and making her depressed.

3littlefrogs · 25/04/2015 10:09

Oh yes - losing stuff.
DD's teacher left the school, taking quite a lot of some students' course work with her.

Theft is a problem in secondary school - sometimes schools seem to be in denial about this.

Floralnomad · 25/04/2015 10:09

My ds did art GCSE a few years ago , my dd and I spent the entire easter holiday doing the prep work for his final project ( which was some African bead work masterpiece) - we all have ownership of that A grade !

BestIsWest · 25/04/2015 10:16

Ha. I remeber this thread. I posted saying I thought my DS should take Drama instead. I was right. He got a C in Art and said to me only last week that he wished he'd taken Drama. And the school lost his coursework too.

Needmoresleep · 25/04/2015 10:37

I remember a thread where someone referred to it as Arrrght. Coursework monopolised the Easter holidays, when DD should have been revising other subjects. She got an A which in the scheme of things was good for someone who is not a natural. She now says her school don't recommend applying for Oxford unless you have 8As. She has 7. She would have got the eight A had she been more tactical and selected something like Latin or IT.

She's not bothered and is quite happy to stay clear of the whole Oxbridge entry thing. However worth bearing in mind if you do.

FYI DD really enjoyed art and found it stretched her in different ways. However it is emphatically not an easy option.

MrsSchadenfreude · 27/04/2015 08:48

DD2's school are suggesting that she gives GCSE art a miss and does the A level at age 16 instead. I am a bit about this, as is she - as she says, no matter how good she is at 16, she is going to be even better at 18. And given that she wants to do art at uni, this would mean that she spends her last two years at school doing no art at all. Does anyone else have any experience of this? It is quite common at DD2's school, for those deemed to be talented, and they seem to get the results, but I am just a bit unsure about the whole thing.

I don't know where DD2 gets her artiness from - I was so bad at art at school, I wasn't even allowed to do CSE!

Esko · 27/04/2015 09:32

My daughter did art GCSE as a one year course in year 10 and was encouraged to do AS in year 11. She decided not to as she is likely to do an art related degree and thought there was no point in doing it early.
I also thought the work load would be horrendous and would affect her remaining GCSEs.

In DD's case I think it was to make the school look good rather than for the benefit of the students.

LimeFizz · 29/04/2015 20:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Millymollymama · 30/04/2015 00:30

Mrs S, As others have said Art A level is a lot of work. Would this detract from her GCSE studies? A level is done as one of 3 A2 subjects, not one of 10 subjects, so it would worry me because I know what amount of work is involved and she will need a top grade to study art further. I would just do the art GCSE first and learn some techniques. What is the point of doing it early? I would check what the universities want regarding A levels but doing no art for two years sounds poor preparation to me. She would have a very rusty portfolio for a start off!

My DD had very poor teaching for Art GCSE and then changed school for 6th form. She found her new friends to be considerably better taught and prepared for the A level than she was. Through sheer hard work and some talent she moved from a B at GCSE (disappointing) to an A at A level. She also achieved an A* at Photography A level. I can assure everyone that if you do 2 Art subjects, you have to work like stink and you have deadlines in March. Not exams in June like everyone else. She also had to prepare 2 portfolios for university entrance (different courses) and submit them in different ways. The portfolios needed lots of work too. Just putting together your A level course work is not good enough.

SugarPlumTree · 01/05/2015 07:05

I remember this thread and suggested strongly to DD she did Photography instead as it came up just as she was choosing options. She did and the whole thing has come back to bite me in the backside as she is now going to be doing it at A level along with Photography. Her friend is doing both at GCSE and claims Photography is more work so she is listening to her. To be fair she did listen to me last summer when I insisted she spent time doing annotations and temporarily got ahead which is my crumb of comfort. I'm going to read her Millymollymama's post as a warning of what's to come.

Friend tried to persuade her DD not to take art at GCSE on back of this thread, but didn't manage to put her off. Currently having a nightmare with it but has the comfort of her DD not going onto A Level as GCSE put her off.

mummytime · 01/05/2015 11:00

Photography is just as hard as Art! DD has just finished, may not get the A* or A she wants, but we're both relieved its over and we can catch up on sleep. She can also revise for her other subjects.

SugarPlumTree · 01/05/2015 12:07

Photography GCSE has pretty much passed me by and has been the least stress in this house apart from when she forgot to hand something in. She is doing a few last minute tweaks then will be finished, I've hardly heard anything about it. She is far more interested in it than pretty much any other subject she's doing, which I think has made the difference .

zazas · 01/05/2015 13:38

This thread makes me tremble with dread...my DS has chosen 3D Art as one of his options and he is completely disorganised and forever losing things - partly explained by his dyslexia. He has fantastic ideas (which of course the teachers tell me they love!) but they are usually completely unrealistic to actually execute (think fire, chemicals - basically anything involving danger!) I am already feeling the pressure to help him manage the expectations of what he wants to achieve with what in reality he can - or for that matter I can cope with. I'm starting to think that Drama might be a better option (which his sister did and loved and he is also keen on) except he dreams wants to be an 'inventor' and loves the idea (and I repeat 'the idea') of making things. Sigh...

mummytime · 01/05/2015 15:09

zazas - if your son wants to be an "inventor" than good science and maths, plus something like "Product Design" would be of far more use. 3D Art is more sculpture.

bigTillyMint · 01/05/2015 17:23

Well, I am another one who has just finished her Art exam!

She had a fantastic teacher who is ultra well-organised and didn't let them leave anything for the last minute, thank God!

SugarPlumTree · 01/05/2015 17:27

My words from this morning have come back to bite me on the backside. She has a fair bit of Photography to do by Tuesday, which is the day of Englsh Lamguage GCSE. That will teach me !

bigTillyMint · 01/05/2015 17:46

SugarPlum, she will have to knuckle-down And how can you revise for English Language?!

SugarPlumTree · 01/05/2015 18:55

She has a plan but it involves a sunset so might have to rethink that ! Guess you can't do a lot for English Language, thank goodness. It isn't the Literature exam.

Lesson firmly learned for next year - ask searching questions early on in the proceedings.

zazas · 01/05/2015 21:40

Mummytime - yes we did look at that option re Product Design but he can't work it with his other choices... He is doing separate sciences etc so that is covered. He is very creative so any 'inventions' are usually on the more whacky side than practical - to date! I think he feels/hopes that 3D art will allow him to express this more abstract side of him. I have told him tonight that after reading this thread he will need to be organised from day one!

pointythings · 02/05/2015 21:08

Compulsory Arts subject? This doesn't happen at my DD's school, they can choose whatever is on the options list. DD flirted with the idea of doing Art but would have had to abandon History for it, and that's her best and passionately favourite subject. I am now very glad the options lists were as they were...

Flip

1 2 3 4 5