Learner Voice – Art and Design 2014
Every
year in the Art and Design department we ask our students to give us feedback
on their experiences. We usually do this
on the day they hand in their coursework as everyone has had chance to work and
progress within the department for a good amount of time and hopefully will
give us relevant and constructive feedback.
This
year the coursework hand it took place on 30th and 31st
January and we asked Fine Art and Graphics Students to ‘Tell us what
they love…’ and ‘Tell us what
you wish for…’ , there is a display on the board at the bottom of the stairs and here are the results:
We
had an 87% response rate across AS and A2 Fine Art and a 100% response rate in
Graphics. Both endorsements identified
common ‘loves’and here is the breakdown:
Teachers and teaching:
18/39
(46%) of Fine Art and 13/22 (56%) of Graphics students responding thought the
strength of the department was the teaching staff and their supportive teaching
methods. Comments like ‘Lots of support regarding work and frequent
feedback’ and ‘the support and staff
and family feel are amazing, my favourite department!’ have made us feel
really proud that our students feel so at home and happy within the Art
Department. We as staff work very hard
to be as supportive as possible so it good to see this reflected back. Comments such as: ‘The help and patience of the staff and instructions given are clearly
portrayed’, ‘Teachers are lovely! They always help whenever you need it’
and ‘The much appreciated help from
teachers’ makes us feel very loved, thank you!
Materials and Techniques:
The
wide range of media available for students to use was the second biggest ‘love’
with 23% of Art students and 21% of Graphics students citing this as their
favourite thing. ‘Weird and wacky art
materials!’, ‘learning new techniques’ and ‘trying different [things], intaglio
and lino. Lino prints are amazing’ are just a few of the comments. We try our best to offer as many different
ways of working as possible and are always trying to introduce new things. ‘Get to do new things’ and ‘printmaking and screen prints, learning
new things’ reassure us that our focus on offering a wide range of
practical techniques across both endorsements is not only successful as
reflected in the marks awarded, but also popular with learner.
Open door policy and creative freedom:
The
remaining 29% of Art and 23% of Graphics students loved either the open door
policy or the creative freedom:
‘The fact that you can always
come up to do work’, ‘the subject workshops and how the studios are always
open’
‘Freedom and individuality’,
’I love how the college Art department enables you to embrace and express your
individuality’,
‘You can develop your own
ideas the way you want to but get lots of support from staff’
There’s so much creative
freedom’
We
are really proud to have such creative and independent students and hope this
continues.
Tell us what you wish for in Fine Art and
Graphic Communication at Thomas Rotherham College:
We
had an 80% response rate across AS and A2 Fine Art and a 77% response rate in
Graphics. Both endorsements identified
some common ‘wishes’ but there were also some more subject specific requests. Here is the breakdown of the common wishes:
Cleaner Rooms:
25%
of Art and 34% of Graphics students wished for cleaner rooms and the staff in
the Art Department agree! ’For people to
clean up after themselves a lot more’, ‘no plaster!’ ‘For people to clean the
printing areas after they finish’.
Our Response: The cleaning staff are
employed to sweep the floor and empty the bins and no more, it is our
responsibility as users of the studios to keep mess and disruption to a minimum
.This poses a unique problem for us as generally in lesson, students clear away
and tidy up after themselves. However
when students are working independently outside their lessons, they are much
less considerate. We could solve this
problem by closing the studios outside lessons, however 29% of students said they loved our ‘open door’ policy. Mess is
also caused by materials such as plaster and printing, again we could limit the
materials we can use but again 23% of
learners identified the range of
materials available as a strength of the department.
I
will look into creating a ‘plaster space’ in R112 to avoid over crowding in
R113 and hopefully this will ease some of the mess. I have also added ‘printing areas’ checks to
the technician job list so the printing areas both upstairs and down will be
thoroughly checked and tidied every Monday morning. However due to staffing this is the only time
when this is can be done during the week.
We can all also contribute to easing this problem – if you are working
outside lesson, please make sure you clean up after yourself. If you see anyone leave a mess, please either
ask them to clean up (politely!) or tell a member of staff.
Materials cost and availability:
15%
of Art students wished for cheaper materials and more free facilities – ‘The cost of buying all of the equipment is
quite high, more notice about this at the start of term or on open evenings’
and ‘More paper at the start of each
term’.
Our response: We only sell materials at the
price it costs us to buy and as we order from an educational supplier this is
much cheaper than you would pay in the shops.
We charge for basics such as paper, brushes and glue sticks as in the
past when we haven’t these things in particular have been wasted on a big
enough scale to affect our budget for the year.
We supply printing materials and basic acrylic paints, however we need
to charge for things such as plaster, intaglio plates and lino. These are expensive to buy for whole classes
and as we have a very small departmental budget, unfortunately we would not be
able to offer these materials and techniques if we didn’t charge for them. We think it is important, and also students
think it is important, to have access to a wide range of materials and
techniques. However we will discuss how
we can make the costs less prohibitive and more clear at the start of the
course.
‘Guillotine that works (only 1 upstairs)’, ‘A
paper trimmer/guillotine – I googled it £98.61 @ amazon J’
Our response: I have costed replacements from
our supplier and for an A2 trimmer it is £106.80, the cheapest A3 trimmer is
£44.98. We will discuss the feasibility
of buying new guillotines at the next staff meeting but for now the existing
ones will be checked and labelled so it is easier to keep track of which one is
working and where it belongs.
Teaching:
2
learners wished for ‘clearer
instruction’ and ‘for help with
annotation. We don’t know what to write
specifically for it to be right’.
Our response: We try to be as clear as
possible with our feedback and record any instructions on the NCR forms.
However, if anyone is ever unclear about tasks set always ask. We agree further help with annotation would
be beneficial, expecially when time in the exam unit is short and you are still
expected to show a fully ‘developed’ journey (AO1). We are discussing ways in which we can do
this without impacting too much on the practical time allocated in
lessons. I will update you when we have resolved
this.
‘To listen to Music in Lessons’
Our response: Unfortunately it is a
college wide policy that you cannot listen to music, either on headphones or
aloud in lessons. To ensure consistency
we have to abide by college rules.
Fine Art Specific:
Computers in R113:
Better
‘computer access’ and ‘the upstairs computers fixing and made more
efficient’ ‘The computers in the
back room of R113 to be fixed!’ was wished for by 20% of students wish was
a surprise to us as we didn’t know they were used so much.
Our response: I have emailed computer
services to come and have a look at the computers to see what can be done. I will keep you up to date of the progress.
Our response: We have to collect the large
bags of plaster from our supplier so this relies upon someone being available
to go and fetch it. We do try to keep as
much in stock as possible however sometimes unavoidably we run out. We have started to stock materials like clay
and generally rely on ‘found’ materials for 3D e.g. wood, cardboard, anything
which has been donated as these are free! If you require anything more
specialised this can be ordered specifically for you from the catalogues at
cost price.
‘More Scissors’, ‘Scissors basket’ there
[aren’t] enough scissors and there could be a place for them in classrooms’
Our response: Each classroom has a tray
for basic materials which should contain 5 x pairs of scissors, rulers and any
spare brushes, pencils etc that are found.
They are kept next to the paint trays in each room. However these rely on students who borrow the
materials to return them. The technician
checks these regularly, however they will be checked and fully restocked this
week.
‘New Coat pegs’
Our response: 3 learners asked for the
coat hooks in R113 to be fixed, I have emailed site staff and keep you updated.
‘It’s always freezing in the classrooms’
Our response: Unfortunately due to the
design of the rooms (specifically upstairs) the amount of windows means the
rooms will always be cold in winter and warm in summer. We have a portable heater which can be moved
from room to room and have moved the plan chests away from the radiators. We are also making enquiries with site staff.
Graphic Communication Specific:
‘A Printer in the graphics room’, ‘Printer!’
Our response: We used to have a printer in
the graphics room, however the cost and logistics of this was unworkable. The teacher would spend most of lesson time
sorting out print outs and collecting money, wasting valuable teaching
time. Also the quality of print outs was
far inferior to that available at reprographics. We do have a special deal (£5 photocopying
card with 70 credits) with reprographics who have far more facilities than we
could ever offer in the department e.g. printing up to A1, laminating,
different papers, A3 scanning etc so we feel it would be better to continue
with our current way of working.
Our response: We would love a laser
cutter! Unfortunately the cheapest I could find was £1399.00 which is over a
third of our yearly budget for the whole of the Art and Design department. Definitely one for the wish list, but for now
unfortunately it’s a no.
‘Faster Computers’
Our response: Due to budget constraints
unfortunately we have what we have. However I will check all computers and make
sure they are running at a reasonable speed as well as general checks like the
USB ports working etc. I will update you on the progress of this.
‘Some trips to different galleries would be
good’
Our response: We agree, getting to see
‘live’ work in the flesh is invaluable, we have organised the London trip for
March and are looking into the possibility of day trips in the future, I will
keep you updated!
Thanks
to everyone who took part in our Learner Voice activities, your feedback is
invaluable to us to make sure we keep doing the good things and continue
developing as a department to give you the best student experience
possible. Keep your eyes open for
further updates of actions and changes which have come about as a direct result
of your feedback.
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