Gcse Art - heavy workload?

[Binsey63]

My daughter has to decide on her options for year 10/11 and she is keen to take Art. I'm concerned that the level of coursework will be too heavy, and stressful, and that other subjects may suffer. Here's a list of the options she wants to take....

Art,
History,
Business studies,
Media studies,
Photography (as a twilight subject)

She enjoys taking art in class but doesn't very often practise Art at home.

Any advice would be very welcome!!

Both my childrens have taken Art GCSE and in my experience much of the work is done outside the classroom. I think they spent more time on art than their other subjects put together. Both my children have or are taking history as well and the workload is more 'normal'. History is also considered heavyweight academically.

Perhaps look at the advantages of the other subjects - in DD's school the business studies kids went on a trip to Paris? What other subjects is she doing and what A levels or career aspirations does she have?

Thanks for your reply. As well as the Core subjects, she wants to take History, Business Studies, Media Studies, Art, (and Photography as a twilight subject).

She doesn't have a clear career in mind, but is interested in Interior Design but isn't definite about that at the moment. She is also interested in some kind of research/writing career.

She hasn't considered any A level subjects at the moment.

Sorry I thought she had to choose out of those.

I would say that Art is valuable if she has any design aspirations but on,y if she is clear she has to do the work. I assume she is doing English/maths/science? Can she do a language? Perhaps drop the photography instead?

Thanks again for your comments.

She's doing English Language/Literature, Maths, Science, RE & PE as her core subjects, and she has to choose 4 other options plus an optional twilight subject if she wishes.

She doesn't like languages at all, although the school recommends taking one.

As she wants to take photography as a twilight subject, she could drop that at some point if it became too much or she didn't want to continue with it.

Her teacher tried to dissuade her taking both art and photography because of the heavy workloads, but this is the two subjects she most keen on.

Media studies IME is a bit rubbish - there's a bit about interpreting messages in media but it was nowhere near as interesting as I thought it would be and the class was full of people who'd chosen it because they thought they'd get to sit and watch films all lesson. I found the whole experience really frustrating and felt as though I was wasting my time.

I think the others sound fine. Art is alright, if she likes art, and perhaps the Photography would complement it too.

There is quite a bit of outside work to do for art, and she'll be expected to be quite self motivated with it. They won't say "For homework, draw a picture of a pot." They'll expect her to be filling up sketchbooks, mood boards etc relating to projects without really much input, and then expect to see them at the end.

Perhaps she could ask her art teacher if she can have a look at some current GCSE students' work over an average week or month or a project with a timescale, with it spelled out how much of that was done in class, and how much was done off the student's own steam. I know that for me this was the time when things started to slide academically because I really found it hard to adjust to that kind of self motivated, self organised study.

Ah okay if she's been advised not to take both - could she swap? Art as twilight and Photography as main? Which does she prefer? Art is more general but then that also means that it requires more initiative from the student IME. Photography is more structured, so it's clearer what is required. It's a little bit concerning that you say she doesn't do art at home, only at school. If she doesn't enjoy art as a leisure activity, is she going to cope with the work and be able to come up with a lot of ideas? I think it's not a subject you can force yourself to get on with - if you don't feel like doing your maths homework, you can make yourself do it anyway, ditto with writing an essay, you can do the grunt work. With art you have to be fairly motivated because it's not formulaic.

Thanks for your comments.

I think that's a good idea about asking the Art teacher to show her student's work (in class and outside of it) to get some idea of the amount of work involved.

Unfortunately, she can't choose Art as a twilight subject. She can choose Art & Photography as main options, so I think she wanted to choose photography as a twilight in case it was all too much.

I think you make some valid points about that fact that she currently doesn't do much art outside of the classroom, and it's certainly given us some food for thought!!!

Interior Design is one of the careers my DD could be interested in as well. The teacher in the Art Depart at her school told us an art subject would be really beneficial for her. Also, pointed out that they have to get a Grade B GCSE pass in order to be able to do an art subject (doesn't have to be the one they've studied for GCSE) at A level in Sixth Form with them. My DD was told to allow approx. four hours homework, but pointed out that many of them go into the art depart at lunchtime to do more.

My DD did photography A level without photography GCSE. She did Art GCSE though. You absolutely do not need to do photography GCSE to do it later. If I am counting correctly, your DD is taking 12 subjects. Why? No-one asks for 12 GCSEs. Photography is hard work too by the way. I would never suggest this as an extra subject in the evenings as it cuts down homework time for everything else. Business studies and media studies are rather dubious choices too. Why are they needed? PE is also time consuming. I would seriously try and cut this back to 10 respected subjects then spending time on Art would not be a problem. My DD did not spend ridiculous hours on Art GCSE but A level is a different proposition!!! As is Photography A level. I would keep one art subject there as she has no drama or music. Art is also best for interior design. Graphics would also have been good.

Problem with creative subjects is you're never finished, you just run out of time or get bored. I leaned on DD to choose max. creative GCSE.

The Art would be immensely useful for interior design. So would business studies because most designers are self-employed or good-as.

Art is about analytical understanding of previous art styles and producing original art in that genre. With essays to explain and analyse how your own work is an expression of the themes in that school of art. Does that appeal to her?

I'm happy to be corrected... my impression is that Photography would not be as very useful for interior design, yet it will be just as endless. The basic analytical skills to be gained are quite similar to the Art GCSE but the work load wouldn't be reduced (no time savings just because there's overlap in skillsets). If she tries to do both she's likely to get a poorer mark on both rather than an excellent grade in just one of them, and she won't gain much more educationally from doing both than if she'd just done one.

OP - this is a couple of years old but it's just been bumped today and I thought you (and your DD) might like to read it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/1406536-If-anyones-child-is-considering-Art-GCSE-a-word-to-the-wise-bitter-experience

Workload for GCSE Art is completely fine. It's what a student makes of it, so can be as heavy or light as the student wants. Three of my DC have taken GCSE Art (and completed the course, all now at uni or beyond). A fourth DC is starting next year. The difficulty comes if a student is a perfectionist, but then that trait can cause problems in each and every subject, also exams. That is the problem, not Art.

My ds said to me that doing Art GCSE made him fall out of love with art.