A Level Art and Design

Discover what it means to be a creative and imaginative visual artist.

Are you interested in graphics, product or game design, textiles, fashion, architecture or any of the wide-ranging options available in the visual arts and the creative industries? Or perhaps you simply enjoy being visually creative and hope to further strengthen your skills in this area. If so, the Art and Design A level is definitely the course for you.

About the course

Our course is designed to build on the skills and enthusiasm you bring. We will help you acquire new techniques, broaden your knowledge, and help give you the confidence you need to achieve your full potential.

The Art & Design department is a lively and friendly teaching and learning environment, where individual ideas, experimentation and risk-taking are encouraged. All the staff are practising artists and have a wide range of specialist interests and expertise. You will have one main teacher and there is flexibility for you to try a range of methods of working. The staff operate as a team to share knowledge and to support students.

We also offer these areas of specialism which reflect the organisation of the teaching studios and the expertise of staff:

• Sculpture
  
• Textiles
• Painting
• Graphics

You can view our students' work at www.hillsart.net

Opportunities unique to this course

The ability to think creatively alongside the observational skills learnt through this subject are considered valuable in a whole spectrum of professions. For example, those students who want to pursue scientific subjects will find Art a welcome and useful contrast that equips them with a complementary set of skills.

Assessment for the qualification is taken in Year 13.

• 60% of A level: Personal investigation - practical exploration of an individual theme accompanied by a research essay.
• 40% of A level: Externally set task - a fresh project developed from a choice of theme options.

You need to be qualified by both the relevant Admissions Score AND the predicted GCSE grade for each A level you apply for.

Please go to the College website to find the most up-to-date entry requirements for each A level that we offer: https://www.hillsroad.ac.uk/study-with-us/a-level-subjects

You can also visit www.hillsroad.ac.uk/apply to find out more about making your application.

Many students complete the single-year art foundation course after studying art & design at Hills. This can provide a great opportunity to experience full-time arts education and significantly boost chances of accessing a wide variety of degree specialisms in leading Higher Education institutions. Some students successfully apply directly to undergraduate-level degrees (such as BA (Hons) Architecture). The extraordinary number of exciting employment opportunities in the creative arts industries include all aspects of 2D, 3D and digital design as well as TV, film, museum and gallery work, art therapy, and art criticism.