Fiducia TogetherSketchbook
The record of your thinking. Assessed as heavily as the final piece.
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.
What it is
A sketchbook holds studies, experiments, artist research, annotation, photographs and development work across a project.
Where it applies
GCSE and A Level art, photography, textiles and DT.
How it works
It is evidence of process, and process is most of the mark. Moderators look for development — ideas that change, experiments that fail and are learned from, decisions that are recorded.
A sketchbook full of finished, tidy work often scores less than a messier one showing genuine development.
How to use it in your work
Date entries and annotate as you go. Reconstructing the thinking at the end is obvious.
Include the experiments that did not work, with a sentence on why. That is explicitly credited.
Do not leave it until the deadline. It is the part of the grade most within your control.
Where to get help
Your teacher and your board's assessment criteria — these subjects are marked against four or five stated objectives, and reading them is the single most useful hour you can spend.
Revise this with a song
These are ours. We write revision songs because a lot of people remember a tune when they cannot remember a page, and because revising out loud in the kitchen beats staring at a highlighter.
- The Art Song The GCSE art topics and terminology, set to music.
Where to read more
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.