Art GCSE and Design Tech GCSE

[ImStillMe]

DD wants to choose both of the above (along with 3 sciences, a language and a humanity for her options .)

Are those both very time-intensive?

Mine did art and design technology (hers was woodwork). I would say art is time intensive at least to get a top grade. You have to be prepared to spend quite a lot of time on it outside lessons. Natural talent does help but it's not enough on its own - you need to do artist studies and 'show development'. Mine procrastinated and hardly ever did any work at home but in the final week or so before the coursework was due in she managed to cobble enough together to scrape a grade 7.
Design technology is not time intensive (at least for woodwork). There was hardly ever any homework.
If yours is academic you might find it's easier to get high grades with other subjects, but I think it's nice to have a balance. One thing my dd wishes she'd taken instead is PE and she was never sporty at all. She says with the benefit of hindsight she would have enjoyed this and probably done well at it.

Dd - very academic - did both Art and a DT GCSE. Both were time consuming but it does depend on the teacher - it is possible to be well advised and do less but still do well, or the teacher may just ask for more and more work as evidence for the highest grade.

I would say that being organised and ready to work steadily over he two years is more important than the actual workload - and the revision load is zero fir Art and lower than standard for DT so there is slightly less pressure at the very end of Y11.

DD balanced it with 2 languages and a humanity as well as the standard sciences et al.

Mine is doing DT (Art 3D Design) ...the portfolio needs weekly to fortnightly attention. Do not assume it has been done in class or there will be a nasty surprise at the end of each term that takes hours to sort out, and may need top up sessions at home when they thought they had finished a section but then received teacher feedback.

It's driving me mad 😬

Although to be fair compared to the other subjects the homework isn't any more than usual it just seems to need to be done in a big chunk rather than a bit at a time..

I believe fine art is a much more demanding time commitment.

Portfolio/sketchbook time-intensive and pressured. Also need to be good at the annotation (research of artist etc)

Essentially, each week DD did all her other homework and then spent the time left (after 10+ hours a week doing a hobby) doing Art & DT.

I have a DC who took DT (Graphic Design). Two points worth sharing are:

The portfolio aspect was time consuming and, at various points, threatened to impact the share of time devoted to other GCSEs. My DC found this to be the most stressful aspect of their GCSE experience. They are glad they did Graphic Design but relieved they did not choose Art in parallel.

The DT syllabus has a large element that is common to all the chosen specialisms and which is more conventionally academic in nature. This suited my DC and may or may not suit yours. Definitely dissect the syllabi for both potential subjects to ensure your DC knows what they are actually signing up for.

Just to clarify it's AQA Art and AQA Design Tech (Graphics) that she would be taking.

Her friend will do Art and Music...I suppose that's a similar commitment?

Music is slightly different (DS did that), as most people doing music GCSE will already have become used to the extra-curricular commitments of music - daily practice, music groups, lessons et al, depending on instruments. They’ll be used to fitting rehearsals etc in around school work, whereas people are less used to fitting in hours of extra-curricular Art or DT work at the point they come to GCSEs.

No I did both and it was fine, got an A in both as they were my favourite subjects.

My DD is doing art and DT (graphics) and it has just about finished her off! She’s bright but she puts so much pressure on herself to do everything perfectly. The amount f work involved in the two subjects is currently having an impact on the revision she can fit in for other subjects. If we could turn back time, I’d certainly be discouraging her from doing both. Obviously this is joys our personal experience and she has friends (who have less extra curricular commitments) who are doing just fine.

At my children’s state comprehensive school, that combination has to be approved for each child by the Head of Art. It’s not, I think, a huge barrier - we were told lots do both (also Art & Photography combination) but it’s certainly a decision you have to get approval for.