Photography

Intent

We aim to create the very best photographers and challenge students to think, act, make, and speak with fluency as if professionals in their field. Our Photography curriculum at MBA looks beyond the assessment objectives of GCSE; we want students to achieve outstanding examination results, but our Photography curriculum aims to aid and equip students with the knowledge and skills to be successful within this medium into Further Education and their professional lives. We want our students to enjoy and value their Photography education. We want them inspired by the study of artists, designers, craftspeople, and photographers to create their work using traditional and 21st Century digital techniques. We provide bespoke learning experiences and provide them with a secure foundation to effectively move onto A level, degree level, and employment.

The Photography Curriculum is delivered initially through combined arts projects in years 7 and 8. These are an integrated, project-based approach and are provided by specialist arts subjects teachers. In year 8 students complete a project developing an animation, understanding how moving images are illusions in the mind and learning the vocabulary (shots) and grammar (editing) of film making.

In year 9 students make options for quarterly rotations in arts subjects including in Photography. Students in year 9 explore the question ‘What does good photography look like?’ to understand that different phases of Photographic history have provided different solutions. In exploring a history of Photography through five key stages they develop the schema to categorise the images they see and understand how to develop ideas from their researches. They learn how to set the settings on a DSLR camera, how to use a tripod and the relevance of these. Students who have completed a Y9 rotation are set up for success at GCSE.

Students in Year 10 may opt for a two-year course in Photography. Students further develop their practical skills and explore new materials, processes, tools, and technologies. The aim is to spark curiosity and provide intrinsic motivation and pride in their work. Engaging with different design contexts and materials creates highly engaged and motivated learners as they become able to explore the wider world and their place within it. We provide an environment where students are happy to take creative risks, ask themselves questions about their creative journey, and respond cooperatively with both staff and their peers. Photography naturally lends itself to collaboration; sharing ideas, working in teams, providing peer critiques and debate. Photography embeds, extends and challenges our students’ knowledge of artistic and historical concepts and principles along with the appropriate language for discussing works of art.

We build our students’ cultural capital by providing students with a means to engage with and understand the world around them and their relationship with it. Embedded in our curriculum is exploring and studying other artists and designers’ work from a vast spectrum of backgrounds, genders, ethnicities, and beliefs. We learn about how the world and its artifacts are represented and about the ideologies running through them. Cultural awareness is developed through creating, investigating, making, and doing. This journey gives our students a voice to express their thoughts, feelings about, and responses to the world around them.

Students have 1:1 iPads and have access to the full ADOBE Creative suite of apps and access to a 3D printer, photographic darkroom, a maker space, ceramics, wood workshop, sewing machines and an etching press. We are continually evolving. We ensure that traditional techniques complement and inform our students’ digital awareness and skills, providing them with the skills and expertise they need in preparation for the rapidly changing world around us and their future employment.

Implementation

Collaborative curriculum planning and a shared vision lie at the heart of what we do in the department. Our curriculum plans are reviewed regularly and are focused on embedding challenges, metacognition, literacy, and high-performance learning strategies. All students are given opportunities to explore their ideas from a set starting point. Investigations and experimentation are fundamental to success, as is the documentation of the visual journey of ideas. Photography students use high quality A3, square or A4 sketchbooks or design files to record evidence of their work. As students progress, they often choose to work on large scale personal outcomes that may include sculptural installations, films, animations, projections, collages, traditional media and alternative process Photography as well as digital photographic outcomes, often using the latest Adobe software. A mixed media approach is often the focus, yet students are also encouraged to be specific in the

type of outcomes they wish to produce. Images can be printed using a high quality A3+ Epson Inkjet printer where required.

iPads are used extensively as a digital creative learning tool. They empower hybridity in the creative process through pattern design, digital illustration, film and photography editing, graphic design and 3D printing.

Learning continues outside of the classroom with visits to galleries and museums. We have worked with the Tate Gallery St Ives, Newlyn Gallery and the Exchange, Falmouth University, Penlee House, Articulation, and the Arts Council.

Our Impact

We have consistently had a very buoyant uptake in Photography both for Y9 and for Y10. We know our curriculum is successful through the consistently strong results and, in particular, our 9 -7 scores. Where there have been county wide exhibitions of outcomes MBA has been singled out for specific praise by university and arts leaders. Students from Photography have consistently gone on to be successful in Higher Education and beyond, working diversely in the visual arts. Compared to National Averages for the Art & Design subjects, our students are consistently achieving above their peers. Departmental QA and student’s voice suggest that pupils feel that the Photography curriculum is suitably challenging and enjoyable, that they know how to progress in the subject and feel supported by teaching staff. Our students are motivated and often work in the photography studio outside of lessons after school to support their coursework.

Year 9 Photography Curriculum

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Year 10 Photography Curriculum

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Year 11 Photography Curriculum

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