| Key Stage | Qualification | Course Code | Exam Board |
| KS4 | GCSE | AQA Photography 8206 | AQA |
| KS5 | A Level | AQA Photography 7206 | AQA |
Years 10 & 11
Photography is a creative subject that encourages you to challenge yourself, take risks and learn from them. You develop your skills with the camera and your way of looking at the world around you. If you opt to study Photography you will learn and develop technical skills such as use of aperture, shutter speed, composition, lighting, photoshop editing, drawing, painting and darkroom techniques. You will analyse and write about many photographers’ work in detail and use their ideas and techniques as inspiration in your own artwork.
What type of photographers do you study?
You will explore a wide variety of photographers, some historical and some contemporary. This is the basis of all of your work.
How are you assessed?
You are assessed in the same four areas as your artwork at Key Stage 3. These are: Investigating artists, Exploring materials, Recording ideas with photography and drawing, Creating personal work
| Component | Assessment |
| Component 1 Portfolio The portfolio must include both a sustained project and a selection of further work resulting from activities such as experiments, skills based workshops, gallery visits and independent study. Students currently create projects on ‘Structure,’ and ‘Abstract Surfaces’. The coursework portfolio lasts until January of Year 11. | 60% of your GCSE grade |
| Component 2 Externally set assignment In January of Year 11, you will be given a choice of questions to respond to from the exam board and you will have around ten weeks to prepare a project. After this you will be given two days to create a resolved piece of work based on your project. | All the work that you create in this unit will account for 40% of your final grade. |
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Sixth Form (Photography)
Photography will develop your creativity in many ways. You will gain a more informed understanding and appreciation of both the photographic art form and the world around you and you will have the opportunity to work in digital form and in specialist dark room facilities. You will develop your imaginative, experimental and expressive powers as well as your intellectual, analytical and technical skills.
You will be encouraged to work in more than one of the following areas:
- Portraiture
- Landscape photography (working from urban, rural and/or coastal environments)
- Still-life photography
- Documentary photography, photo journalism
- Experimental imagery
- Photographic installation, video, television and film
Throughout your studies, you will learn how feeling and meanings can be conveyed and interpreted in images and artefacts. You will examine historical and contemporary developments and different styles and genres and appreciate how images and artefacts relate to the time and place in which they were created.
| Component | Assessment |
| Component 1: Personal Investigation | 60% of A Level Practical investigation supported by written material. |
| Component 2: Externally Set Assignment | 40% of A Level Preparatory period + 15 hours supervised time. Students receive a question paper with eight choices to be used as starting points. Students choose only one. |
