Currently I use:
First Year (mainly traditional dark-room based) all non-photographers
*The Alphabet* - a training exercise to encourage wide thinking and use of angles
Close To Home - all photographs to be taken within approximately 100 metres of their home / school (based on an excellent book by Andrew Sanderson)
A visit to the seaside (we take a day out for this)
Urban - which is open-ended so can lead to from urban graffiti to rolling English landscapes.
Each lasts about 4 - 6 weeks and 2 must be submitted for marking along with all prep work (worth around 70% of marks)
and an end of year practical exam set by OCR an English examining body. This divides questions into 4 blocks:
1. Stimuli - a simple word or phrase which can lead anywhere they
wish: e.g isolation, thread and weave
2. Observational - e.g. bicycle, windows
3. Design Brief (e.g. poster, advert)
4. Art in Context: for example the role of figures in a space within
a painting or photograph (always includes a selection of suggested
artists.
*Second Year* (any process - film (B&W or colour or anything else), digital, Victorian, or video
One project only: "Out Of The Box" - an exercuise in free-thinking
Again there is an end of year exam, identical questions as for the First Year students (but they would have done different ones when in their First Year)
The course also requires an extended Personal Investigation (open-ended in Year 12, much more specific in Year 13 and based on real photography exhibitions!)
I'll happily send or post on the Internet the paper background and examples of students' work.
Howard
