Year 9 Visual Arts

Mask & Make-up

Students develop and design different Masks and Make-up styles to realise, characters, and dramatic intentions and engage audiences. They explore forms and styles of costume and Theatrical Make-up. They plan, produce and refine a variety of Three Dimensional and Make-up Masks. They select and use elements of narrative and apply this to the stagecraft of Theatrical Costume and Make-up. They use experiences of drama practices from different cultures, places and times to evaluate their own work.  Students will be expected to maintain and complete a folio of works which contains a visual diary and finished artworks as well as a written research assignment.  

Explore and Express Ideas

Students will learn to:

• Improvise with the elements of drama and narrative structure to develop ideas, and explore subtext to shape devised and scripted drama.
• Manipulate combinations of the elements of drama to develop and convey the physical and psychological aspects of roles and characters consistent with intentions in dramatic forms and performance styles.  

Drama Practices

Students will learn to:

• Practise and refine the expressive capacity of choice and movement to communicate ideas and dramatic action in a range of forms, styles and performance spaces.
• Structure drama to engage an audience through manipulation of dramatic action, forms and performance styles and by using design elements.

Present and Perform

Students will learn to:

• Perform devised and scripted drama making deliberate artistic choices and shaping design elements to unify dramatic meaning for an audience.  

Respond and Interpret

Students will learn to:

• Evaluate how the elements of drama, forms and performance styles in devised and scripted drama convey meaning and aesthetic effect.
• Analyse a range of drama from contemporary and past times to explore differing viewpoints and enrich their drama practice. 

Media - Photography and Photoshop

The ‘Photography and Photoshop’ course focuses on providing students with specialised skills and knowledge in the analysis and production of digital photographic images. Students will have the opportunity to research the effect photo editing has on creating unrealistic expectations in society, how professional photographers and studios operate, build skills in photo editing on industry-based software such as Adobe Photoshop, use digital cameras and create their own photographic series for presentation. They will use appropriate decision-making skills to find the most effective way to implement ideas, research, design, create and reflect on media.  

Explore and Express Ideas

Students will learn to:

• Experiment with ideas and stories that manipulate media elements, and genre conventions to construct new and alternative viewpoints in images, sounds and text. 
• Manipulate media representations to identify and examine social and cultural values and beliefs. 

Media Practices

Students will learn to:

• Develop and refine media production skills to integrate and shape the technical and symbolic elements in images, sounds and text to represent a story, purpose, meaning and style. 
• Plan, structure and design media artworks for a range of purposes that challenge the expectations of specific audiences by the particular use of media elements, technologies and production processes.

Present and Perform

Students will learn to:

• Plan, produce and distribute media artworks for a range of community, institutional contexts and different audiences, and consider social, ethical and regulatory issues. 

Respond and Interpret

Students will learn to:

• Analyse and evaluate how technical and symbolic elements are manipulated in media artworks to challenge representations framed by social beliefs and values in various community and institutional contexts. 
• Analyse and evaluate a range of media artworks from contemporary and past times, to explore differing viewpoints and enrich their media arts making. 

Sculptural Ceramics

This course is designed for students to express themselves and develop new skills in the areas of drawing and 3-D sculpting. The flexibility of hand building with clay offers endless opportunities for creating a variety of forms. Students will use fundamental hand-building techniques including pinching, coiling and slab building. Using these techniques students will create a range of forms, varying from functional ware to sculptural forms. They will also develop skills by experimenting with a range of techniques to explore texture and surface decoration. Students will learn the art of wheel-formed ceramics including ‘throwing’ forms on a pottery wheel and finishing and glazing simple shapes. They will also research the work of a broad range of artists to explore different historical contexts, cultures and viewpoints. 

Explore and Express Ideas

Students will learn to:

• Explore visuals arts practices and styles as inspiration to develop a personal style, and explore, and express ideas, concepts and themes in artworks. 
• Explore how artists manipulate materials, techniques, technologies and processes to develop and express their intentions in artworks.

Visual Arts Practices

Students will learn to:

• Select and manipulate materials, techniques, technologies, and processes in a range of art forms to express ideas, concepts and themes. 
• Conceptualise, plan and design artworks that express ideas, concepts and artistic intentions.

Present and Perform

Students will learn to:

• Create, present, analyse and evaluate displays of artwork considering how ideas can be conveyed to an audience.

Studio Art

In Studio Arts students have the opportunity to visually explore the influences of a broad range of innovative artists from different cultural and historical contexts. They will analyse and respond to techniques, processes and visual conventions in artworks so they are able to develop their own unique art practice. 

Students will actively use the Studio Process of inquiry to explore ideas and develop concepts to express personal viewpoints and insights in their folio of artworks. Students will explore a range of traditional and diverse contemporary art methods, including the immersion in collaborative projects such as Installations, Digital works and community projects that connect them to the wider world through the Arts.  

Students will be expected to maintain and complete a folio of works which contains a visual diary and finished artworks as well as written analysis tasks. 

Explore and Express Ideas

Students will:

• Explore visual arts practices and styles as inspiration to develop a personal style
• Explore and express ideas, concepts and themes in artworks
• Explore how artists manipulate materials, techniques, technologies and processes to develop and express their intentions in artworks.  

Visual Arts Practices

Students will:

• Select and manipulate materials, techniques, technologies and processes in a range of art forms to express ideas, concepts and themes. 
• Conceptualise, plan and design artworks that express ideas, concepts and artistic intentions.  

Present and Perform

Students will:

• Create, present, analyse and evaluate displays of artwork considering how ideas can be conveyed to an audience. 

Respond and Interpret

Students will:

• Analyse and interpret artworks to explore the different forms of expression, intentions and viewpoints of artists and how audiences view them. 
• Analyse, interpret and evaluate a range of visual artworks from different cultures, and historical and contemporary contexts to explore different viewpoints.  

Visual Communication Design

Students build on their awareness of how designers communicate ideas with a specific purpose, to a target audience, using different visual communication design practices. They refine their personal aesthetic through their development of knowledge, understanding and skills in making and responding to visual communications. They adapt ideas and practices from selected designers and use them to inform their own use of aesthetics when producing a range of visual communications. Students extend their understanding of design practices and their understanding of the roles of visual communication designers and their audience. 

Explore and Express Ideas

Students will:

• Develop and present visual communications that demonstrate the application of methods, materials, media, design elements and design principles that meet the requirements of a specific brief and target audience.  
• Generate, develop and refine visual communication presentations in response to the brief. 

Visual Communication Design Practices

Students will:

• Use manual and digital drawing methods to create visual communications in the specific design fields of Environmental, Industrial and Communication Design 

Present and Perform

Students will:

• Develop a brief that identifies a specific audience and needs, and present visual communications that meet the brief. 

Respond and Interpret

Students will:

• Analyse and evaluate existing Visual Communications