Art at Our Lady's High School, Motherwell

Standard Grade Art

Sg artwork by Nicola McLindon The Standard Grade Art & Design course aims to offer experiences relevant to pupils' lives and to encourage pupils to become more visually aware. The course is devised to benefit pupils at all levels of ability through a variety of activities and experiences.

The course is devised by the teacher, following national guidelines and incorporating materials produced by local and national support groups. Each course takes account of the individual needs of the pupils and the local conditions.

There are 3 main areas of study:-

Expressive Activity
Design Activity
Critical Activity

Pupils experience these throughout the 2 years of the course.

Expressive Activity involves pupils in practical work, exploring a theme chosen with the help of their teacher. Pupils may produce work in any of the following categories: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Print-Making, Fabric Craft and 3-Dimensional work. Pupils express visually their own ideas and feelings, and will have the opportunity to work with a selection of media and materials (eg, paint, clay, printing ink, dyes and film).

Design Activity gives pupils the opportunity to tackle practical design problems by investigating, researching and presenting their own solutions in 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional form. Problem solving is based on real life situations like designing company logos, graphics, posters for an exhibition, or creating a design for a range of textiles, creating a fashion garment, creating a piece of ceramic or designing a piece of packaging for a cosmetics company like The Body Shop.

Critical Activity is done in written or tape recorded form, with illustrations if the pupil wishes. Critical Activity is intended to encourage pupils to develop ideas and opinions on their own work and on the work of others, particularly that of artists and designers from the past and those still living. Pupils should come to understand, and make their own judgements on, the place of Design and the Visual Arts in everyday life.

Assessment and Certification

Work is assessed on performance in each of the three activities:

Expressive
Design
Critical.

Final assessments are made in S4 during the summer term.

Expressive Activity is assessed by the Scottish Qualifications Authority on the basis of the work produced during a practical examination

Design Activity work is assessed by the Art & Design staff in the school, with assessment standards checked by the SQA

Critical Activity work is submitted to the SQA for assessment.

On the certificate, an overall award on a scale of 1 to 7 is shown, 1 being the top of the scale. A Profile of Performance is also provided, showing the award for each element on the same scale.

Further study in Art and Design

Additional skills in Manufacturing Technologies and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) will be developed during the two years of study at Standard Grade. Further experience of the above activities, Manufacturing Technologies and ICT, can be gained if the pupil continues his/her studies in Art & Design at Higher Grade.

Pupils who continue their study of Art & Design at Higher Grade will be able to claim Core Skills in Problem Solving and Information Technology . Their study could also contribute to the oral and written elements of Communication.