Photography Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact
Intent: At Archbishop Tenison’s we offer A Level and AS Photography, following the Eduqas specification. We want our students to be able to use Photography to express themselves. You don't create a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography to all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved. As a department we believe that, as photographers, pupils learn several transferrable skills that will help them in later life. These include communication, organisation and also problem-solving skills.
In A Level Photography, students are introduced to the course with a variety of mini projects including ‘The Language of Photography’, ‘Mundane is Beautiful’ and ‘Fashion Photography’. Within these projects we cover; camera technique workshops, studio lighting workshops, using gels, Photoshop workshops and also paper manipulation workshops. After this, AS pupils will create a Personal Creative Enquiry that will be 100% of their AS grade.
Many students decide to do the full A Level and within this, A Level students start their ‘Personal Investigation’ which is 60% of their final grade. They continue this until February of Year 13 where they start their exam project based on a brief provided by the exam board. They will then sit a 15-hour exam to create a final piece. This is worth 40% of the A Level.
Implementation: Collaborative curriculum planning is imbedded into our department; we are a small team of subject specialists and we work together to ensure a rich and engaging curriculum is provided. Our Department are continually reviewing and developing schemes of work to ensure an enriching sequence of lessons that supports maximum progression.
Our current curriculum for Photography is designed to not only teach our pupils the basic skills but also for these skills to be nurtured and to gradually deepen. We understand that many come to study the subject for the first time, so when they arrive in Year 12, we have worked hard to ensure they get the chance to explore a range of topics that will widen their practical and theoretical understanding. We also make it a focus that our A Level Photography pupils have a clear understanding of the Assessment Objectives they will be marked against. Our aim is for pupils and students to understand the journey and exactly why they are doing what they are doing. We also provide opportunities to visit galleries, take part in internal and external workshops as well as getting the chance to meet and listen to industry professionals about their journey into creating a career out of photography.
Impact: It is important to our department that both pupils and students leave the school having been given a rich curriculum that has supported them in developing their creativity and problem solving skills. At A Level, this success is shown with Photography, which achieved an ALPS score of 3 in 2019. The Photography department continuously works hard to be a subject that pupils and students enjoy and year on year we see a variety of students go on to study Photography based courses at university
EDUQAS GCSE PHOTOGRAPHY
Portfolio: (60%)
· Project 1: Skills building/introduction to GCSE Photography. Looking at cyanotypes, aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, editing techniques, the formal elements. Pupils will produce a set of final images to support this project
· Project 2: Fragments. Looking at the works of Rankin, Rosanna Jones, Jean Faucher, Greg Sands, Mana Morimoto, Hannah Hoch, Anastasia Savinova then pupils will have a wide variety of Photographic Artist’s to choose from depending on their own taste/direction of the project. Large work: A2 Yayoi Kusama piece, A1 collage, Lino print, A1 Cultural portrait, independent large piece in any medium.
Project 3: The Human Condition. This project is self-directed. Pupils will be given a wide variety of Photographic Artists they could explore and choose from. Pupils will do a variety of photoshoots and will have a minimum of two collection sets of final imagery. One will be done during the MOCK exam where pupils will get 10 hours to create a pre-planned large piece.
Exam (40%)
· Externally set assignment. Pupils will have a variety of themes to choose from and will create a developed self-directed project based on one of those themes.
· Pupils will sit a 10 hour exam over two days to create their final piece for their externally set assignment.
Photography
Eduqas A Level Photography*
Portfolio (60%)
· Students will undertake a series of workshops that go back basics.
· They will initially focus on the ‘Language of Photography’ to support this.
· Then, students will look at further mini projects; from exploring the mundane to typologies to fashion and also film.
· A wide variety of skills will be explored including camera techniques, Photoshop, moving image, digital and paper manipulation and studio lighting.
· Students will the progress on to create their own ‘personal investigation’.
Externally Set Assignment (40%)
· Students will have a variety of themes to choose from and will create a developed self-directed project based on one of those themes.
· Students will sit a 15-hour exam over three days to create their final piece for their externally set assignment.
*There is the option to take this subject as an AS Level or a full A Level course.