Learner Voice November
23
What do you love about the art
department at Thomas Rotherham College?
Comfortable
Atmosphere – 47%
“Relaxed/fun
atmosphere”
“Love
how relaxed the way of working is”
“It’s
nice to have time to express myself and be creative”
“How
chill the lessons are and how relaxed it is”
Techniques and
Facilities – 45%
“The
facilities provided e.g darkroom”
“Trying
different techniques in Art like intaglio”
“Experimenting
with different techniques and materials”
“I
love using all the equipment available in the facilities”
New sink
(Woodhurst) – 32%
“I
love the new sink it makes practical work so much easier”
“That
sink is 10/10”
The Open Door
booking system – 25%
“Having
access to the art rooms and being able to use them in free periods”
“I
like how you can book in on your frees”
Staff and
Support – 18%
“Helpful
teachers 😊”
“The
support and patience of the teachers”
“Staff
are very understanding”
“I’ve
loved being motivated to be better”
“Teachers
involve themselves a lot in helping with your work”
“Staff
are really nice and welcoming”
Creative
Freedom – 15%
“Love
the free style of working”
“Using
independent ideas”
“I
love the creative part of Photography where you’re allowed to add or change
what we’re learning into your own style”
A few
honourable mentions….
·
Example sketchbooks (12%)
·
Shop (9%)
·
Doing photoshoots outside of
department (3%)
What do you wish for in the art
department at Thomas Rotherham College?
Nothing! – 20%
Thank
you! This is always a lovely comment to receive!
More
guillotines – 16%
This was mostly mentioned in Graphics regarding the new room in
Woodhurst, although there were also a few mentions in Art and Photography. We
have bought one new guillotine already this year, meaning we have 3 downstairs
and 2 upstairs, so unfortunately we won’t be able to afford any more this year!
However we have purchased two new small guillotines for the room in Woodhurst
which should help with the queues for chopping over in Graphics at least!
More drying
racks (Woodhurst) – 16%
Once
again, this was specific to the new Woodhurst room. We will definitely bring
over an extra drying rack for the next time practical work is going on in
Graphics!
More space in
W103 – 13%
The
room in Woodhurst is certainly smaller than those over in Art and Photography,
so this is a completely understandable request! Patience has had a go at a new
arrangement of tables to hopefully give more floor space over there – so we
will see if this makes a positive difference!
More time for
deadlines – 9%
Given the nature of our courses, tasks and deadlines for those tasks are
set to ensure you complete the necessary amount of work in the time we have for
each project to get you marks! Therefore there is not much we can do to narrow
these tasks down or extend deadlines, as this then impedes on the next task. However,
we are always looking at our schemes of work and adjusting timings and the
tasks we set to ensure everything is definitely doable and won’t overstretch
anyone!
A few
honourable mentions….
More materials
available
We
have a large amount of materials available to purchase from the shop, as well
as basic materials in the rooms to use when you are in class or Open Door. If
there is ever something specific you need, come and ask one of us and we can
see if we have it!
More lessons on
digital work
This
was from both Graphics and Photography.
Our
Graphics course is divided between practical printmaking and digital designs,
so it is necessary to create your own practical source material before moving
onto the computers. We try to fit in as much time on digital work as possible
around this, but understand some of you who are more confident digitally would
like to spend more time on this side of things rather than practical. We hope
that the balance we have created can please both the more practical students as
well as the digital ones!
In Photography, we had a couple of students mention using Adobe Lightroom
in lessons. This is something you can use on the computers if you are already accustomed
to using it, and we can look into using this more within lessons if there is
demand for it!
Aircon/fan in
W103
We appreciate
it is VERY HOT in W103! We will speak to our site staff about this!
Stopwatches in
darkroom
This is a new request! We will definitely look into this!