Learner Voice | January 2022

On the way back from our Manchester Trip last week we ran a Learner Voice survey with our A2 students. See below their feedback and our responses! 

 

What do you love about the art department at Thomas Rotherham College?

 

Support from Teachers and Technicians – 52%

Always a great one to hear! This year we have had a new addition to the art team in Kyla! Our new technician who now steps in when Patience is teaching. We have seen a huge impact from this since Kyla started in November, and it has really helped make sure that students get as much support as humanly possible from the four of us! We really appreciate how valued our staff are by the students in the department and the support they give, whether inside or outside of lessons. So this is lovely to hear – thank you and we will continue to try and be as helpful and supportive as we are now!

 

Facilities and Skills – 47%

We have had a lot of love for the variety of skills and techniques taught across the course, including various printmaking skills and, of course, the darkroom! This is a facility that always gets a mention, so no surprise a high percentage of our Photography students said they loved this about the department. Our new photo studio (improving the old one was a big wish from previous Learner Voice!), materials in the classrooms that are always accessible and available to use, and our printmaking facilities were all mentioned as part of this. Students also mentioned how much they love learning new techniques when they come to TRC, and leave with the knowledge of lots of new and exciting skills!

 

Independence and Freedom of Ideas – 15%

Students are encouraged to develop their own personal ideas when thinking about concepts and pathways, to the point where this year we made sure everyone’s ideas were different by writing them all on the wall and checking they weren’t too similar to anyone else’s! This is to ensure everyone has a personal project, but also gives students the freedom to explore something unique to them and something that they are truly interested in. Alongside this comes a lot of independence, and there is a great work ethic in all our students to develop their work within their own time and independently during lessons. It is great to hear that so many of you love this aspect of the course and enjoy the freedom and independence of creating your own projects!

 

A few honourable mentions….

·         Trips (15%)

·         New photo studio (specifically the curtain!) (10%)

·         Positive and friendly working environment (7%)

·         Open Door (7%)

·         Researching artists (5%)

·         The shop (2%)

 

What do you wish for in the art department at Thomas Rotherham College?

 

More time for presentation tasks and homeworks – 26%

We understand that these first few weeks of the Final Independent Project have been absolutely none stop, and you should all be super proud of what you have done and achieved in such a short amount of time. You have all got off to the best start possible for this project, and that is down to your industriousness working towards these deadlines. However, we do appreciate that expecting this extremely large amount of work all the time is not realistic or sustainable, hence this weeks homework is a catch up! We do work against the clock and try to time each week’s work appropriately, so it is both realistic but will also get you all the work you need to have before a hand in deadline! This is a tricky balancing act, but we understand it can sometimes be overwhelming especially when you do two of our titles. We will definitely look at timings of this for next year and see where we can give some time back to the students to help with this.

 

After college open door (or more opportunities to book in) – 16%

This is something we have never had requested before in Learner Voice! As our booking system only allows 5 students to book in per lesson, and slots only during the lesson blocks during the day, it can sometimes be difficult for students to find availability to book in during their frees. So we completely understand why an after college open door would be really helpful for a lot of students. We have already discussed this with our Site team, and propose a trial run of the following open door sessions starting Monday 7^th of Feb until half term. After this we will then decide if it is feasible and worth continuing for the rest of the year.

After College Open Door (4.00-4.50pm)

Monday and Tuesday

 

Early Bird Open Door (8.10-9.00pm)

Wednesday and Thursday

We will add these to the booking sheets and run them the same as other open door slots, so make sure if you are wanting to use one of these you book in just as you would during a normal period.  

This is the best solution we could come up with based on staffing and site opening hours. We will see how these go and if we find it has been helpful for you we will continue to run this!

 

Curtain or blind for door in photography studio – 13%

We have also already discussed this with our Site team following a large response here on Learner Voice! A permanent cover cannot be placed on the door due to health and safety, however they are going to look into a blind/curtain that could be used temporarily during photoshoots that require it. We will keep you updated on this!

 

More trips – 13%

Yes! We want this too! Among many things, Covid has caused disruption to our general trip schedule of YSP in Year 1 and Manchester in Year 2. We are so happy with managed to go to Manchester, despite not having been to YSP with this cohort due to lockdowns and restrictions. We always love the enthusiasm and industriousness from students when we go on a trip, and it is always a lovely day out and change of scenery for us to! It is definitely something we would like to introduce more of during your time with us. If you have any suggestions what these trips could be – do let us know!

 

More memory space on computers – 10%

We agree this can be a real issue at times, particularly when uploading photoshoots or working with large Photoshop files. We will speak to our computer services team about potentially increasing this on our computers downstairs.

 

More table space for Open Door – 7%

Hopefully our new Early Bird and After College Open Door’s will help with this by providing more opportunities to book in. But for those using the slots during lessons, we have to restrict the amount of people in these for a number of reasons. Initially it was due to Covid restrictions, but it is also due to the overall limited space in the classroom and not wanting to overcrowd the rooms that many people use for busy practical work. Adding more tables may give the impression of more space, but ultimately would limit the space within the room itself and could make it more crowded and difficult to work in.  

 

A few honourable mentions….

More/a better guillotine

We are aware that one of the guillotines downstairs is on it’s last legs and cuts at a funny angle, which is certainly not something what you want in a guillotine! We will look into fixing this. In terms of more guillotines, we currently have 5 in the department, and while there is sometimes a queue, 5 is plenty! There are extremely expensive and believe that the ones we have will do for the time being. We also have 2 ‘mini’ guillotines downstairs for anyone cutting smaller work that does not require the A1 guillotines. Ask us about these if you don’t know what we are talking about as they are really handy! 

Learn more techniques (e.g. clay, screen printing in art)

We would love to introduce more techniques and skills into the course, the only issue is time! It would be difficult to fit more ‘induction’ type techniques into what is already a super packed course structure, but we will certainly consider this and see if it is an option.

More printer credits

We are looking to raise this again this year. We have always asked for more printer credits for our students due to the amount of printing they are required to do for the course, and we still believe this could be a higher amount, so we will see what we can do.

More packs and bundles available in the shop all the time

This is a great idea! We will have a think what packs or bundles would be good to sell and think about putting these together to sell!

More active on social media for interaction

We are always wanting to find new and interesting ways to be more creative and active on our Instagram! If anyone has any suggestions as to how we can do this (as you are all a lot younger and more ‘hip’ than us…) then do let us know!