Year 10
Art & Design
Scheme of Work

Ten sections per unit, in the same order every time. Lessons are one row per week rather than one per hour, because Key Stage 4 art is timetabled in doubles more often than singles.

At Key Stage 4 the working is the work. Three of the four assessment objectives are about investigation, refinement and recording, so every unit requires a visible trail of stage photographs, proofs, maquettes, layer logs and rejected trials, and treats it as the assessed product rather than preparation for it.

Art and design sits outside the statutory national curriculum at Key Stage 4, so this book is built on the two documents that actually bind every board in England, checked against the source PDFs rather than assumed. A back-matter section names exactly what varies by specification and what a department must confirm locally before teaching the externally set assignment in Year 11.

Written to

The GCSE subject content for art and design (DfE, 2015) and the four assessment objectives set by Ofqual (Ofqual/15/5643)

Intended for

heads of art, subject leaders and every teacher who has to deliver it

Extent

65 pages · 16 sections

1. 1a

   Recording: Observation Held Over Time

   Autumn 1 · approx. 7 weeks · September – October

   What does a drawing gain in eight hours that it cannot gain in one?

   End outcome

   One A2 sustained study from direct observation, plus the four staged photographs that prove how it was built.

   Core skills

   Comparative measurement — checking one interval against another with a plumb line · Building a full tonal range from one grade of graphite · Working wet media over a measured underdrawing · Photographing work in progress as evidence

   Key artists

   Euan Uglow, Vija Celmins, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

   Key vocabulary

   sustained study, comparative measurement, plumb line, interval, negative shape, tonal range, ground, resolution, focal hierarchy, picture plane

2. 1b

   The Photographic Image

   Autumn 2 · approx. 7 weeks · November – December

   When does a photograph stop being a record of something and start being a decision about it?

   End outcome

   A sequenced series of eight to twelve photographs with a stated theme, plus one cyanotype or other alternative-process print.

   Core skills

   Setting exposure deliberately on manual or on a priority mode · Composing through a viewfinder rather than cropping afterwards · Editing a large take down to a sequence · Coating, exposing and washing a cyanotype

   Key artists

   Vivian Maier, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Khadija Saye

   Key vocabulary

   aperture, f-number (f-stop), shutter speed, ISO, depth of field, exposure, contact sheet, the take, edit, sequence, alternative process, cyanotype, tintype

3. 2a

   Print: Layer, Register, Edition

   Spring 1 · approx. 6 weeks · January – February

   Why would an artist choose to make the same image more than once?

   End outcome

   A three-colour reduction linocut in a numbered edition of five, plus a typographic overprint.

   Core skills

   Cutting for the reduction sequence · Registering by jig so every impression lands identically · Rolling an even, thin layer of ink · Proofing, correcting and then editioning · Setting and locking up type, or its stencil equivalent

   Key artists

   Angie Lewin, Alan Kitching, Paula Scher

   Key vocabulary

   relief, reduction, registration, jig, proof, edition, impression, overprint, brayer, burnish, artist's proof, colophon

4. 2b

   Surface and Stitch: Building in Layers

   Spring 2 · approx. 6 weeks · February – March

   What can a built surface carry that a flat image cannot?

   End outcome

   An A2 mixed-media piece on a prepared ground, using transfer, collage, paint and stitch, with the layer order recorded as it was made.

   Core skills

   Preparing a ground that will take wet and dry media · Gel-medium photographic transfer, laid down one week and rubbed back the next · Cutting and tearing for effect · Straight, running and whip stitch through paper and fabric · Sanding and lifting back through layers

   Key artists

   Romare Bearden, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Faith Ringgold

   Key vocabulary

   ground, substrate, transfer, toner, burnish, appliqué, collage, photomontage, register, opacity, translucency, subtractive

5. 3a

   Form: Casting, Constructing, Repeating

   Summer 1 · approx. 7 weeks · April – May

   Can the space around an object be the subject instead of the object?

   End outcome

   A resolved 3D piece by one of three routes, plus maquettes of the other two and a set of drawings from three viewpoints.

   Core skills

   Making and casting from a simple one-part press mould · Building and skinning an armature · Looped and twisted wire construction · Designing a repeatable module and joining at volume · Drawing a 3D form from three fixed viewpoints

   Key artists

   Rachel Whiteread, Ruth Asawa, El Anatsui

   Key vocabulary

   armature, maquette, void, negative space, positive form, press mould, one-part mould, release agent, undercut, module, in the round, plinth, patina

6. 3b

   First Sustained Project: From Question to Outcome

   Summer 2 · approx. 7 weeks · June – July

   You have five ways of making. What do you actually want to say, and which one will say it?

   End outcome

   A complete portfolio section: a stated question, first-hand source material, experiments in at least two material areas, a development sequence, one resolved outcome and a written evaluation.

   Core skills

   Narrowing a question by testing it · Gathering first-hand sources · Selecting a material area for a reason · Running the full cycle to a deadline without being told what to do next

   Key artists

   Lubaina Himid, Cornelia Parker, Do Ho Suh — plus at least two the student finds and defends themselves

   Key vocabulary

   intention, investigation, first-hand and second-hand source, development, refinement, realisation, personal response, contextual link, rationale