The Edinburgh Academy

Preparation for advanced work

The GCSE course successfully prepares students for the experimental nature of AS and the rigor of A2 whilst being a natural progression from the thematic approach lower down the school.

Schemes of work are designed by individual class teachers, using the annual department theme, who aim to teach a broad range of techniques and skills through structured guidance of students. Students follow lines of enquiry towards final outcomes and the opportunities for students to structure their own ideas and projects increase towards the end of the course. Where possible, students change teachers half way through the course in order to gain a broader experience and benefit from different approaches and strengths.

Students regularly visit exhibitions and are also encouraged to do so in their spare time.

Fourths

In the first year of the course, students either work on one long project based on the theme of the year and will produce several outcomes as a result of sustained enquiry, or produce two projects. One project may be discarded or developed the following year.

All students keep sketchbooks throughout the course and there is a weekly homework requirement. Projects take place in these but also on a larger scale in ambitious class work.

Fifths

In the second year of the course students work on two projects based again on the theme of the year but with two different approaches and resulting in two different outcomes. (For example a clay project and a painting project)

This year sketchbook work should be more independent and a natural method for exploring ideas and collecting and researching information. By the second project students should be showing greater evidence of ownership of both ideas and development.

The prelim in January gives them the chance to gain the experience of planning that is required to ensure a successful and personal ten hour piece. This time can be used to complete a project.

In the summer term students complete their Controlled Test. There is an exhibition for the GCSE work after the controlled test has taken place.

GCSE Exhibition 2007

This year’s GCSE art exhibition drew inspiration from the philosopher Gaston Bachelard and the concept of ‘Intimate Immensity’, or, as William Blake put it, To see a World in a grain of sand, And a Heaven in a wild fl ower, Hold Infi nity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour. The students interpreted this concept in a variety of ways, many drawn from Rauschenberg’s use of found objects incorporated into collages. Calum Munro produced an outstanding sketchbook, every item holding a memory. Andrew Rutherford, inspired by Cornell, placed his memories in a box, while Milos Cucakovic represented his in a woodcut. The theme was continued in the students’ wire-and-plaster sculptures, the inspiration being drawn from research into organic forms. Frazer Salter’s DNA sculpture, Murray Graham’s sculpture based on a piece of pollen and Zander Macdonald-Williamson’s use of the texture of avocado skin refl ected the ‘intimate immensity’ in the natural world. Edward Fisher produced a plaster piece inspired by Peter Randall-Page while Calum Finnigan’s abstract card sculpture was particularly striking. The experimentation with materials and textures was also seen in Rory Paterson’s outstanding work. Ruairidh Kemmett was ambitious and original in thought in representing the expanding circles brought about by skimming stones. Calum Sutherland revealed equal talent and ambition in his Banksy- and Rauschenberg-inspired stencil prints. Cameron Ross and James Clark were both taken with the idea of markets refl ecting culture. Cameron’s stencils gave us an insight into markets he had visited all over the world while James Clark’s vivid red chillies gave us a real feeling of texture and heat. Patrick Trotter, Ross Low, Edward Fisher and Nick Dodd were all inspired by waterways and in particular showed us water as a living, moving entity: Ali Houston’s woodcut green waterway was especially striking. Connor McMillan, Liam McVay and Alex Gardner with his Chinese whispers looked at the importance and growing impact of communication. Once again I was struck by the talent evident in this year’s Fifths’ hugely perceptive and sensitive GCSE work.
S. A. F. Mair