Is this level of GCSE Art homework normal at secondary school?

[LolaBaby75]

My DD is doing Art GCSE for better or worse! My friend whose DD is in another school advise me not to let her choose it because of the workload. Her daughter loves drawing as a hobby and is very talented but has found it to be relentless in the workload - having to spend hours doing art homework every week. So I fully braced myself for this reality but... nothing much! There have been a total of two homeworks coming home this academic year - both of which were moodboards for artists. Is this normal? It seems all the work gets done at school or you stay after school to do it there. AQA board if it makes a difference. My DD's target grade is 5. What are your experiences.

People always say this, but my daughter found that the absolutely worst subject work-wise is Food Tech - with two practical assessments and two massive courseworks plus an exam. Also, PE - very stressful and time-consuming with all the practical video editing and then the horrible long coursework plus TWO exam papers!

Art has definitely been less stressful than the other two. at least there's no written exam.

I did it in a year and I used to head to the Art Room at lunch time or after school quite a bit. I did get homework but much of my work was independent work. I wonder if your DD is allowed/expected to do more of their own work or come up with their own ideas. The other school sounds very restrictive with set ideas. I did loads of pottery, fabric painting and collage and very little drawing for mine.

My DS’s art teacher was very negative about his standard of hw in the first few weeks of Y10. It was mainly that he didn’t understand what a good one looked like and what the expectations were. I went in and asked to see what was needed and once DS and I discussed together, this made a difference. It’s taken hours and hours of time but after 2 years he has loved it. It seems to me that schools vary hugely in how they approach this and the standard they expect. Some don’t even let their students own their sketchbooks and it’s all completed in school which could limit achievement for those who want to own their art and do more at home , though I realise that very occasionally portfolios get left on buses etc and in some schools the variation between what students have at home to be able to complete work can be very variable. So I think the number of hours at home and how well this is structured for students really does depend on the individual school standards in art and the types of students and their home lives in their cohorts.

I think Art is a very easy GCSE for someone aiming for a 5-7 as the standard of work required is not outrageously high and as long as the sketchbooks look neatly presented, the 10-hour final piece exam is fairly relaxed with pupils able to prepare and bring in a lot of stuff from home. Someone aiming for 8-9 will need to spend a lot of time on the sketchbook and final piece ideas, but generally it has been the softest GCSE of those my daughter is doing (infinitely less work than Food Tech or PE).

Lots of different approaches and plenty to think about! Thank you everyone who replied. I'm going to contact the school and ask.