Learner Voice October 2016

For this year’s AL’s we decided to move our learner voice forward to October so we could see everyone’s opinion on the introduction to the course and what they initially found difficult or what stood out to them as a positive in the department. This is great for us as the sooner we get feedback from our students the faster we can improve their learning environment and overall enjoyment in the course.

What do you love about art and design at Thomas Rotherham College?

Feedback like this is just as important as knowing what you wish for in the department, as it allows us to see what works for you, and then make sure we can carry on doing it!

Open Door and Creative Freedom

27% of Art, 28% of Graphics and 27% of Photography said they love being given the opportunity to be independent with their work and make their own decisions about it, so they can be creative with their work and their sketchbooks. Also the opportunity to use the classrooms during frees even when other classes are taking place, allowing students to catch up and spend more time on their pieces of work and presenting their sketchbook.

I love…


"being able to use the art room whenever"   "independence within the development of our work"   "how free you can be with your work"   "independent work and constant feedback"   "the amount of options there are to develop your photos the way that you want"

Facilities and Techniques

58% of Art, 64% of Graphics and 40% of Photography love the range of techniques taught in the department and the facilities available, such as intaglio, screen printing, and the use of the darkroom. Also that our facilities are open to use in lessons and in frees.

I love…

"different equipment/materials available to use"   "having access to facilities and materials I was previously unable to use"   "learning new methods"   "the range of activities we have done e.g. printmaking, photography, chine colle, colour mixing"   "the computer room"   "screenprinting!"   "the amazing facilities that are always open to use"

Staff and Support

6% of Art, 7% of Graphics and 22% of Photography said the quality of teaching and amount of support given was something the loved about the department.

I love…

"the structure of work"   "task sheets, they are very helpful and make lessons more structured and understandable"   "the support we get in class and one to one help"   "that sheets are given on the amount of work we need to do"

What do you wish for in art and design at Thomas Rotherham College?

Teaching and Support

15% of Art, 7% of Graphics, and 8% of Photography asked for more one to one support and clearer explanations on how to present and annotate work.

I wish….

"talk about sketchbook annotation in the first few weeks"    "communication between teachers sharing classes needs to be improved"   "check students work and see who needs a bit more help with theirs"

Our response:

Over 10% of you overall put support and feedback were something you loved and found very useful in the department. So there’s clearly a divide here in students successfully finding the support they need.

We try to spend an equal amount of time with everyone but with there being so many students to get round in very little time this is often not the case unfortunately. If you feel you are struggling and not getting the help you need the best thing to do is tell your teacher. If you aren’t voicing the fact that you are struggling then we may not realise that you are – we can’t read minds! If you do feel you need more help and there isn’t enough time in the lesson to speak to your teacher, you can always come in subject workshop.

Facilities and Techniques

15% of Art, 7% of Graphics and 4% of Photography have said some of the facilities in the department could be improved and that introducing a wider range of techniques to the course would be beneficial to them.

I wish…

"include teaching woodcut"    "more space to work in during frees"    "I feel as though there should be less emphasis on intaglio printing if we decide it’s not our thing"   "more darkroom experiments"   "improved photography studio as Woodhurst is small"

Our response:

As all these requests are quite specific I’ll go through them one by one.

Include teaching woodcut – after a student last year made an amazing woodcut, we decided to begin introducing woodcut to the department. We have bought in some small wood blocks to get started which are 90p from the shop and tools are also available to order. However, we haven’t yet put it into lessons as it is so new, and we haven’t given it a proper go yet. We will consider bringing this into lessons next year, until then it is always available for you to have a go if you’re feeling adventurous!

More space – this is one thing that no matter how hard we try, we can’t really change! We only have a certain amount of space available, and we realise this can be a bit small at times especially when there are so many students, but over the past few years we have done our very best to maximise this space as best we can. Upstairs in fine art, the whole of the left side of the room is there to be used for frees so there will most likely always be a space somewhere. Sorry we can’t help with this request!

Less emphasis on intaglio – (this goes for any specific techniques being taught in graphics and photography too) This first half of your first year is all about experimenting with different techniques and learning what you’re good at and what you don’t like too much. So if you don’t like intaglio, that’s perfectly fine! We introduce it to everyone and show you all the possibilities you can do with it. In the next few weeks some of you will be learning lino printing which might be more your cup of tea than intaglio, but you never know till you try. Don’t worry there are plenty of other techniques you will be taught until you find something you are comfortable with.

More darkroom techniques and improved studio – we are looking at introducing film into the darkroom and have recently bought a film drying cabinet, but similarly to woodcuts, it’s very new to us to and we need to teach it ourselves first before we can pass it on to you. We are hoping to introduce film photography and would love to bring colour developing chemicals in as well. As for the studio, it’s again an issue of space. We don’t currently have anywhere to put a studio other than Woodhurst unfortunately.

In general – we are working very hard at the moment to introduce new techniques and improve the facilities in the department. We have begun focusses on improving 3-D and modelling work, and are currently in the process of bringing in UV exposure screen printing.

Work

26% of Art, 15% of Graphics and 12% of Photography suggested ways the structure of work in art and design could be improved.

I wish…

"more freedom in our choices of artists"   "being able to be more free with our work"    "we were allowed to do more independent work like a catch up day"    "more freedom with my work"    "deadlines – they’re too close together"

Our response:

This is very interesting considering 20% of you said you loved the creative freedom in your subjects! As I mentioned earlier, this first half of the year is about experimenting with techniques and finding your feet. Once you delve into your major coursework project later on in the year you will find a lot more independence in the pathway you take and which artists you choose. Be patient, freedom will come!

Regarding deadlines, we only give you as much as we know is possible to do. Bare in mind you have an entire week from the day it is set to the day it is due. You should spend 4 ½ hours each week outside of lessons on your work, and this doesn’t have to be spent at home, you can always use the department during your frees, you are always welcome to use the facilities. Later on in the course when it comes to your coursework and exam you will need to produce a huge amount of work in a short amount of time, so homework’s and deadlines will keep you on track for what you need to do and when you need to do it by. It’s the nature of the course, but it is totally do-able I promise!

Equipment and Money

A whopping 42% of Art, 41% of Graphics and 75% of Photography asked for more affordable equipment, and for more equipment in the art rooms.

I wish…

"more notice for when to buy materials"   "another guillotine as always queuing to cut out work :("    "more printer credits"     "extra printer credit for both endorsements if you do more than one"    "more free materials, hard to afford e.g. paper, glue sticks.."    "more cameras for the department"   "new photo dryer for the darkroom"    "another printing press"    "free mounting paper"

Our response:

The majority of these were regarding guillotines, printer credits, and the price of materials. So let’s break these down:

Another guillotine – given that overall over 20% of you asked for a new guillotine downstairs and the fact we have 96 graphics and photography students using it we agree that it is essential that we invest in another one. We will look into ordering this as soon as possible.

Printer credits – this is something that we don’t decide unfortunately, the amount you are given is determined by the finance department based on how much money the college can afford to give. We will ask and put the point across that printing is a huge part of  the course and that you are struggling to afford it with the printer credits you have at the moment. But it is out of our hands, so we’ll try our best but can’t promise anything for the time being.

Materials – we try to provide as many materials as we can that are free to use in the department such as inks, paints, palettes, darkroom chemicals and the majority of the equipment that students use. Being able to buy things the more expensive things such as cameras and new guillotines means we must ask for a contribution on the smaller things such as pens, paper and glue sticks. We sell these at wholesale price and take no profit from them, so unfortunately we can’t reduce the cost at these. We will look at cheaper alternatives to materials like mineral paper, like a wider variety of sugar papers, and look into the budget to see if we can provide more supplies for free.

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