Art & Design

Exam Board

Additional Entry Requirements

Grade 6 in GCSE art or applied art (if taken). Grade 5 in GCSE maths and English language.

Portfolio required to judge suitability if art not taken or predicted below 6 at GCSE

Course Content

Why art & design?

A level art & design provides a fantastic opportunity for students to explore their creative talents. One in every six jobs in the UK held by graduates is in the creative economy, showing the importance of art as a subject.

Art students at Woodhouse develop their creativity and produce a diverse range of creative work. Essential skills in drawing, painting, print, 3D, problem-solving, research, critical analysis, experimenting and presentation are all a part of the course. Many of these skills are transferable across other subjects and are highly valuable in all areas of education and work.

More than 50% of art students progress onto creative courses such as architecture, history of art, animation, and art and design foundation. This includes institutions such as UCL (the Bartlett School of Architecture), the Courtauld Institute of Art, Central Saint Martins and many others. Many art students also progress onto non-art-related degree courses.

Course content

The course centres mostly on fine-art approaches and in year one you will explore techniques from a variety of stimuli while completing practical projects. This will include man-made and natural forms, the human figure, landscape, architecture and other starting points.

Your art skills and techniques will develop through taught workshops and research. You will learn to analyse the work of well-known artists and develop personal themes, producing final outcomes that show your skills and ideas. These can be in the form of sculptures, paintings, mixed-media work, textiles, ceramics and other forms.

In year two, students have the opportunity to develop their own project ideas using all the skills acquired in year one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please click on the headings below.

Can I take art A level if I didn’t study it at GCSE?

If you are applying for a place at Woodhouse College to study Art and you didn’t take Art and Design at GCSE you will need to submit examples of your work to the art department.

Your Art Work:

We would like to see examples of your work that will show us that you could cope with the course and more importantly, that the course is the right one for you.

We are looking for:

Observational drawings from objects (not copies from books or other images) in any medium.
Some examples of artwork that you like with some writing to explain your choices.
Enthusiasm for Art!

Tip: when drawing, try to find objects which interest you and that have enough lines or shapes to challenge you.

When you apply, you will be asked to submit some artwork that can be shown to the art department.A decision will be made on viewing this as to your suitability for the course, but the department do not have any influence on whether or not you are offered a place at Woodhouse.

Can I take photography as a separate A level?

No, but we use photography constantly throughout the course as a means to record ideas and relevant source material, for use in collage and other mixed media work. Students have access to photoshop and drawing tablets and there is an extracurricular photography course involving the dark room (covid permitting).

I want to do graphic design at university but you don’t do a separate graphics course, should I take the A level?

Our course is fine art based and therefore you would have to think carefully about the type of work you enjoy and whether this would suit you. However, many of our students do go on to study Graphic Design at university or Art college using portfolios produced from their A level work.

What art resources do you have?

Students are taught in two, very well equipped art studios - stocked with an enormous selection of high quality drawing, painting, printing and textiles media.

There is also:

a 3D and ceramics area with a kiln
a fully functioning photographic darkroom.
a dedicated art library stocked with 1000's of art books and magazines
a suite of art computers equipped with photoshop.
a large scale digital printer, colour photocopier and screen printing exposure unit.

“The workload is definitely a big jump from GCSE but here, teachers let you express yourself, it’s more personal. I want to do architecture and things like sketching first-hand and thinking about the meaning and reasons of why you create something is going to help me.

Classes feel a lot more interactive. You’re around everyones work, discussing what’s good about it, supporting each other.

Woodhouse is known for getting really good grades, but the social aspect isn’t lost. You meet people from many different backgrounds and learn so much about other cultures, it’s really good.”

STAVRI

Oasis Academy Enfield

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