GCSE Digital Photography
The Photography GCSE offers students an exciting journey through creative and technical skills, exploring techniques and themes such as composition, editing, lighting, colour, still life, portraiture, shutter speed and aperture in Year 10. In Year 11, students use their learning from the Year 10 course to choose a topic of their choice and pursue a project in the style that they want to use in photography. Assessed entirely through coursework, students build a portfolio (60%) and complete an externally set project (40%) with a 10-hour final assessment. This course fosters creativity, expression, creative and technical skill development.
Students will complete these distinctive units of work:
Creative Introductory Unit: Here you will learn a wide array of skills and techniques to allow you to achieve your creative and technical goals in photography (Year 10).
Final Major Project (Year 11)
Externally Set Assignment (Year 11)
All the units are marked in the same way using four assessment objectives summarised briefly here:
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained investigations, demonstrating critical understanding of sources.
AO2: Refine work by exploring ideas, selecting and experimenting with appropriate media, materials, techniques and processes.
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions as work progresses.
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and demonstrates understanding of visual language.
Assessment in Year 11
100% of the GCSE is assessed on coursework, and it is broken down into the following parts:
60% Portfolio.
Your child will complete a series of projects over the course of the entire GCSE, and these will form their portfolio. All work from Year 10 and 11 can be included, but the main bulk will be the final major project.
40% Externally set assignment.
This is a paper that comes from the exam board and will have seven different starting points for students to choose from. We receive this paper in January of Year 11 and will give to students as soon as we return after Christmas. Students will work for approximately 11 weeks on this as a new project and will then sit for a 10-hour controlled assessment over 2 days at the end of March or early April. In the controlled assessment time students will produce a final response to their externally set assignment.
Choosing Photography GCSE can lead to a huge array of careers. Graphic design, web design, game design, marketing, and more. You could also use photography in careers such as wedding photographer, food photographer, journalism, sports photographer, wildlife photographer, or fine art photographer. The transferable skills of using editing software, creativity, resilience, problem solving, risk taking and perseverance will apply to any career, whether directly linked to the photography world or not. Importantly, pursuing a subject of true creativity, technical skill, and thoughtfulness in the time of AI is beneficial for students' wellbeing and enjoyment.
You can support your child in their Photography GCSE by showing an interest in their creativity and photography. You can also take them or encourage them to visit galleries and exhibitions, there are lots of excellent galleries local to Leeds and Bradford, and I have listed a few links relevant to Photography below. I have also added some websites to help with editing their photographs.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpcndxs/revision/2
https://artwithmisswilson.weebly.com/artist-research-websites.html
