About this course

IGCSE Art & Design online course

The iGCSE in Art and Design, Fine Art aims to support student development of a unique creative response through engagement with sustained and independent enquiry on this 100% online course. Students can choose to focus on drawing, lens/light-based media, mixed-media, printing, painting, or sculpture to explore an idea, convey an experience, or respond to a theme. Fine Art is often defined as a counterbalance to craft or work produced in the creative industries. It creates opportunities to communicate aesthetic, intellectual or purely conceptual ideas and meaning.

Students will demonstrate an understanding and application of the formal elements and principles of art and design in their artmaking which can be the outcome of personal experience alongside response to observation in new and unique ways. This course supports the development of students’ verbal, written and visual communication skills, encouraging a personal response by stimulating imagination, sensitivity, and conceptual thinking. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate critical thinking and communicate for different purposes, expressing their opinions, persuading others, discussing ideas, and debating real-world issues. Students will gain contextual knowledge by understanding historical and contemporary art, craft, and design practice from different cultures, to demonstrate an understanding of continuity and change in fine art.

Cohorts

King’s InterHigh students can choose to join one of two cohorts for the iGCSE in Art and Design, Fine Art.

  • Fine Art | Multi-media (drawing, lens/light-based media, mixed-media, printing, painting, or sculpture)
  • Fine Art | Photography (lens/light-based media)

Each cohort will work towards the iGCSE in Art and Design, Fine Art, and students cannot join both. Both cohorts will be taught by highly qualified and experienced art teachers. However, the lens/light-based media cohort will be instructed by photography specialist art teachers.

Teachers make use of the webcam feature and their document camera each week to guide students through various skills and techniques. The completed pieces of art that are produced by the students are shared digitally for viewing and feedback. Students will be required to keep their cameras on to view the progress of work during practical studio time so that assessors can moderate and authenticate. Component 2 includes the externally set assignment under 10-hours of exam conditions. This will likewise be delivered 100% online under exam conditions split into two date-stamped and authenticated 5-hour invigilated sessions.

Component 1: Personal Portfolio 50% weighting

Component 2: Externally set exam 50% weighting

Students create work on paper or in sketchbooks, which are then compiled and digitised into a digital portfolio of 20 PowerPoint slides for each Component for online assessment. Formative assessments take place regularly and in a variety of formats ranging from group discussions, class collaborations, research, analysis, quizzes, communication skills, presentations and artmaking activities.

  • Component 1 starts September of Year 10
  • Component 2 externally set theme released by Pearson Edexcel in January of Year 11
  • Submission to enter Exam by February of Year 11
  • Exam (100% online) by March of Year 11
  • Deadline for digital submission of Component 1 and 2 by May of Year 11
  • Results by August of Year 11

This course is 100% externally assessed at Pearson by examiners who will use the Assessment Grid and Assessment Objectives to place a mark against the work submitted by students.

In the October of year 11, 12 and 13 parents and guardians will receive an email asking which exams the learner intends to take, and where they would like to take them. Parents and guardians must inform King’s InterHigh if they need assistance finding an exam centre by mid-October.

King’s InterHigh can support you in finding a local exam centre. It is then down to the individual to register with the centre of choice and pay the exam fees to the centre directly. As each exam centre sets their own fees we cannot provide accurate pricing, however as an example, you can see our own fees by clicking here

Physical, medical or learning support needs may be eligible for access arrangements during exams. These can include:

  • Extra time of 25%*
  • Extra time up to 50%*
  • A reader*
  • A scribe*
  • Supervised rest breaks
  • Separate room
  • Use of a laptop
  • Enlarged print exam papers

*These arrangements must be approved by the exam board. The learner will need to undertake learning assessments with an educational psychologist or specialist assessor in order to complete the application form. These assessments can take up to 18 months to process.

The deadline for application to the exam board is the February of the year that the learner sits exams.

Key information
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4FA1
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International GCSE
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Edexcel
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2 years
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Online, real-time classrooms, 24/7 access to curriculum
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September
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100% online course
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Pupils can choose additional subjects including IGCSE Art & Design for an added fee per subject. View Fees.
About our fees

We have several fee packages and options, with differing levels of commitment to suit most circumstances. In most cases parents have the option to pay in instalments, spreading the cost of the investment.