Please explain options for studying art after GCSE

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My dd is doing very well at art. She is in year 8 at the moment, but her art teacher has told me a lot of her work is already at GCSE level. Dd loves it too and is always doing things in her own time and learning new techniques and things. She definitely wants to take art at GCSE and is thinking about an artistic career of some kind.
I don't want to get too far ahead but I am just wondering about good next steps after GCSE. Dd is doing well in most of her subjects but she is not that academic and she has been predicted grades 4-6 in most of her subjects at the moment.
There is a college that has an art programme locally and I have heard it is quite good. But with the potential to get a very good grade in art would there be any other options worth looking at. Is it worth considering working towards a degree?
As I say its quite far ahead but I'd just like to get a clearer idea of what are good choices for her.
Any advice appreciated thanks.

A traditional path to study an art subject at Degree level is A levels then a 1 year art foundation (where you get to experience various aspects of creative studies from fashion to fine art and so on) then apply for a specific degree in your chosen specialism. I believe you can substitute A levels for BTECs and in my case I did a year of A levels but then left to do a one year Art foundation before embarking on a degree in Fashion. Others may have a different experience. I think if she loves and is good at art then it is definitely worth considering a degree, it would be really useful if at some point she was able to start to narrow down what aspects particularly interest her but no worry if she isn't able to this at this stage as that is the point of the art foundation (although you do apply for degrees quite early on in the course). I would also recommmend she starts to familiarise herself with design packages like photoshop if she is able to.

Thanks so much Rudi, dds art teacher is very nice and I think they will support her but it's helpful to know a bit more about what she might look at doing.
At the moment she likes comic books, animation and manga but I wonder if that might change as she gets older. She has always liked drawing people though so I think that will be part of whatever she ends up doing.

Animation is an option at degree level (I myself have worked at an animation company) and there is a healthy animation industry in the U.K. and further afield when considering career options much further down the road.

Check What Uni for animation degrees. These will then give you details of qualifications they want. Even googling it, lots of courses came up.

My DD did A levels in Photography and Art. She could also have done textiles but her Art A level included an element of textiles because there are options within the A level.

After A levels she did a degree at the London College of Fashion. She didn't do a foundation year but some courses do prefer the foundation and mostly this is after A levels. Sometimes the University you wish to go to offers a foundation year and then a fairly seemless transition to the degree. You just have to do the legwork to see what route is best. Often art courses require a portfolio and a foundation year gives time to produce this. Doing one at the same time as A levels is manic!!! We have the T shirt so to speak! Any decent teacher will advise on all of this.

I did the traditional route of A levels- foundation- degree. However, my friends child left school at 16 and went to college and is just now completing a two year extended diploma in Art and design .I think she needed 5 GCSEs (Grade C) with a high grade in Art and Design to get onto this level 3 course. She has had a brilliant time and has had time to produce a great portfolio of work for interview.
She has had uni interviews and received offers and already knows where she is going next year.
Another friends daughter has done 4 A levels ( including Art) . Originally, she ambitiously intended to apply to uni this year ( straight after A levels) but has understandably struggled to get a comprehensive portfolio together because of the demands of the other A levels she has had to take . She has now switched to the traditional route and applied for a foundation course instead at a College.

Thank you everyone that's very interesting. I am pleased to hear the college route worked out well as that means if dd were to opt for college she could still go on to a higher level if she wanted. I think she might want to do this over A levels as a friend was telling us the local college I mentioned had good facilities and dd looked it up online and was quite impressed. The other place she wants to go is CalArts in the U.S. that she has seen on YouTube .
As you can see she is already looking ahead, so this is one reason I wanted to find out a bit more myself.

Be very careful abut universities and colleges in the USA. DD had a place at the New School, NY. There is virtually no chance of a large scholarship reduction in fees - DD got a small one!. The fee level for Art Schools is high. New School was $20,000 per semester,so $40,000 pa, plus materials, plus travel, food and accommodation. You need deep pockets and they are 4 year degrees. I would persuade her to look at a university here quite frankly - unless you are mega rich of course!

No unfortunately she won't be able to go to the U.S unless we get a big lottery win in the meantime. But I'm sure she can get just as good a qualification here.

Yes she can!