back to Trinity Sixth Form Centre
Faculty: Creative & Technical
Subject: Photography
Staff and Responsibility: Mrs Douglas
Exam Board: EDUQAS
ASSESSMENT FORMAT
The A-Level revisits and refines skills explored at GCSE, developing these through to a higher level. A comprehensive, instructed project at the start of the course seeks to prepare students for the remaining programme of study.
From the Spring Term of Year 12 until February of Year 13, students will be engaged in the practical work for their personal investigation project. Students will be expected to explore a variety of processes, both behind the lens and in the digital darkroom, where their findings will be presented in digital portfolios or sketchbooks. Students’ work will be graded against four assessment objectives where they will be expected to display their ability to develop ideas through extensive artist research, experiment with capture and editing techniques and thoroughly evaluate their own process and outcomes.
In February of Year 13, students will receive their exam papers and select a question to base their final project upon. The initial stages of this project are identical to the coursework portfolio, with the only difference in that the final shoots are edited and resolved in a 15 hour exam.
To assist and enrich the learning experience, trips will be organised throughout the course. In recent years students have been to museums, galleries, towns and cities for location shoots and research. Students will need to have a committed approach to photography, displaying self-motivation and independent work; Trinity believes each student should spend 4.5 hours, outside of lesson time, per week on the course to yield success.
- Year 12: Skills workshops and coursework
- Year 13: Personal portfolio (60%) and externally set task (40%)
SUBJECT OVERVIEW
Students with no prior experience of photography are more than welcome to the course, providing they have the necessary entry requirements for Trinity’s Sixth Form. Students will begin their journey into A-Level Photography at Trinity with a series of workshops and short projects, designed to provide them with the necessary camera and computer skills to be successful in both the coursework and exam components of the qualification.
The exam board expects all coursework and exam projects to have a designated theme which is appropriately researched, shows experimentation and is resolved in both a personal and creative manner. Students work independently on their submissions and document their opinions throughout. Students are not expected to own their own cameras as the school has a number available for loan. (Students are very welcome to bring their own equipment if they are willing to take responsibility for it whilst at school.)
POTENTIAL CAREER OPTIONS
Students may go on to higher education or apply for degrees based on classical photography (some universities offer specialist courses within this umbrella e.g portraiture or landscape), photo-journalism, fashion, fine art, animation, media, film and many more.
