What do you love
about Art/Graphics/Photography at Thomas Rotherham College?
Support and
Staff – 38%
This was the most popular
comment throughout every subject, with 32% of Art, 31% of Graphics and 50% of
Photography saying they loved the support given and the helpfulness of staff in
the department. Which is wonderful to hear!
‘I
love the teachers and the help they all give’
‘Lots
of help and support from staff’
‘121s
are extremely useful’
Facilities and
Techniques – 29%
As we are constantly
introducing new skills and techniques into the department, it’s great to know
that this is really appreciated by students, and gives them an opportunity to
try something new.
‘Different
methods of creating practical work’
‘I
love the range of things on offer for me to try. Has been really good to
develop different techniques’
‘Resources
available and quality of resources’
Open Door and
General Atmosphere – 29%
36% of Art, 31% of Graphics and
16% of Photography said they loved the accessibility to the department and the
availability of the facilities not just during lesson but during free periods
and over lunch. We love that the department is a comfortable place for students
to spend their time and do work. This is something that crops up every year in
learner voice so we will always do our best to keep our open door policy in
place.
‘Always
having access to the department and a wide range of materials’
‘Being
able to come in and do work at any time, and pretty much everything else the
department does’
Independency
and Creative Freedom – 23%
After the initial period of
‘Exploring Media’ we encourage students to choose an idea or pathway that they
are passionate about and techniques that are suited to them, and this is
something that was mentioned by 28% of Fine Art, 22% of Photography and 15% of
Graphics.
‘The
freedom of the subject to be able to explore a range of ideas for my work’
‘The
independence we have when doing our own work and ideas’
Purple Books –
14%
Purple books have come a long
way since they were introduced (which was barely just over a year ago!), and
have now become a firm favourite for so many of our students, saying they were
great for keeping organised and on top of work.
‘Purple
books help me know what needs completing within each week’
‘Purple
books help us organise better’
Art Shop (13%)
Having access to the art shop
and the range of materials available were mentioned by 13% of students.
‘The
art shop is really useful and has cheap materials’
‘Patience is a massive help!’
Cheers guys!
A few honourable mentions…
·
Extra
1½ homework (9%)
·
Trips
(5%)
·
Technician
121s in graphics (5%)
·
Instagram
·
‘EVERYTHING!
J’
·
Useful
having own drawers this year rather than sharing
What do you wish for in Art/Graphics/Photography at Thomas
Rotherham College?
NEW PRINTER –
57%
I think this may be one of the
highest percentages on a learner voice there’s ever been! This is definitely a
huge problem that we will take as priority. We realise the printer downstairs
is very slow, and more recently the quality of the printing has started to
diminish, as well as glossy paper not even working half the time. I have been
speaking to reprographics about solutions to this and we have come up with a
few ideas, so we will be attempting to sort this over the next few months.
Another
Guillotine – 28%
This was requested by 44% of
photography and 42% of graphics, but only 12% of art, so I’m going to assume
this is talking about the old guillotine downstairs. I have fixed this so many
times but it always manages to break again as soon as I’ve done it! If we have
any space left in the budget at the end of the year this is going to be a
priority, but I’m afraid there’s not much we can do for the time being. Guillotines
are surprisingly expensive! A new A3 guillotine is top of our list, but a
cheapish one would cost £215, so watch this space….
More skills
& facilities – 14%
Art 12%, Graphics 25%, Photo
11%
The facilities available were
the second most popular answer in the love category so this appears to be a
mixed opinion. However, I think we all agree that there is so much more we wish
we could do in the department! Some of the things mentioned in Learner Voice
were: More equipment to create products in graphics e.g. a mug press, a better
studio in art and experimentation with film photography. We are desperate for a mug press in graphics
and were so close to buying one before Christmas but realised how much more
complicated it was than we thought, however this is still ongoing and we would
love to have it up and running by the end of the year.
We are very close to fully
introducing film photography into the department – after half term we will be
introducing ‘Action Sample’ cameras which will be available to loan out, and we
will be stocking film in the art shop for £4.50. By the end of the year film
processing should be available for those wishing to try it.
The suggestion of a black and
white wall for the studio in art is actually a great idea! We will discuss this
as a department and see if it is feasible when it comes to using the room for
the exhibition etc.
Printer
Credits – 12%
Again, this is something that
crops up every year, we realise that the extra £5 isn’t enough for art
students, particularly those who do two titles. We as a department don’t decide
this so we will have to speak to the LRC about the possibility of raising this
amount. As this comes up in learner voice every time, we should start to see
some changes to this soon.
Heating
Downstairs – 12%
We would love this as well!!!
We will speak to Site staff about this and see if there is anything we can do.
Smaller
Workload – 9%
Unfortunately, as you know,
Art, Graphics and Photography rely on a constant production of high quality
work. There is a constant focus on
quality over quantity, however, we know there is a lot to do. This year we have taken out a lot of the
‘task’ homework’s and replaced them with ‘sign up for extra hours in the
department’ homework’s. The college
expectation is 4.5 hours of taught lessons and 5.5 hours of independent
learning, and we know (especially form Student Reps!) that a lot of you already
do this and beyond. We try to do all we
can to make the workload as easy for you to manage as possible – open door
policy, lots of resources, we have even introduced the new Monday and Tuesday
‘Art Club’ where you can see staff outside lessons.
On the plus side, at the end of
your two year course, you will gain a hard won A Level and be part of something
BIG – the exhibition! You will see the fruits of all your constant hard
work. Students are often surprised at
their own achievements, seeing your work up on the walls, all together is worth
it. We are always excited and surprised
by not just the talent of our students, but the sheer endeavour and hard work
shown. So, you can do it folks J
Open the Art
Shop on Wednesday – 9%
The idea of having the shop
closed on a Wednesday was so that I (Patience) could get admin done without any
interruption… But you lot never give me any peace and quiet!! So I have made
the executive decision to scrap this and keep the shop open every day. You’re
welcome.
More
support/feedback – 9%
As of Monday we have started
the brand new ‘Art Club’! This is run on a Monday and Tuesday after college and
is there to help you catch up on work, or, more importantly, have 121s with the
staff member running the session. Anyone can attend art club and it is there
particularly for those of you who feel they need extra support or feedback. We
hope this is an appropriate solution to those of you who mentioned this in the
survey.
Freebies/Cheaper
Materials – 5%
No can do I’m afraid! The
materials in the shop are already the cheapest they can be and we can’t afford
to subsidise lower prices, sorry!
More things
available from the art shop – 5%
We have technician price lists
up in the class rooms which I recommend having a look at, as we had someone
mention they would like to buy acrylic paint sets from the shop, but we have
always kept these in stock and they are on the price lists, so do have a nosey
if you’re wondering what we have. However, not everything is on the price list
though so feel free to come and ask me if there is something specific you want,
and if I don’t have it I can look into ordering it at wholesale price. I’m here
to help so don’t be shy!
A few honourable mentions…
More catch up weeks
The more ‘catch up’ weeks we
give you, the more work we have to cram into the other weeks we have available,
this may be counterproductive!
More examples of work
We have created spaces up and
downstairs to put out previous sketchbooks on relevant pages as examples.
More art crits
We are so pleased you love
these and will bare this in mind when reviewing the schemes of work.
Homework hand in on 2nd
lesson
We are looking into this, we
did run this with one group last year.
The danger with this is if you miss the second lesson deadline, you only
have one more lesson of the week to meet the deadline and work can pile up. Again this can be counterproductive. We are flexible when it comes to homework
sometimes, especially if you are in A block and have the first lesson on Monday
morning. We would rather encourage and
support you with managing your time to meet the first lesson deadline.
Better intaglio press
For now, a big purchase like
this can’t be a priority over everything else that has been requested. However
I will keep an eye on the one upstairs and make sure it is always working as it
should be.
More Equipment
Not sure what this is referring
to but if there is something specific you want to use please come and see us
and we’ll see what we can do.
Clean scanners
I will do this today!
More space to work in outside
of lessons
Sadly, our rooms are only so
big and we can’t make them any bigger! After the exhibition this year when it
comes to putting the rooms back together we will look at more practical ways to
arrange the tables to make more space for students next year.
Option to book lesson as
photoshoot (photography)
This can be done! If you need
the studio, you can do this for lesson time.
However, you need to check with your teacher that the lesson will be
appropriate to miss. You cannot miss
input from the teacher or 121s. If it
would just be in a normal practical lesson, this happens often already.
What do you think about some specific changes/decisions
recently made in Art/Graphics/Photography at Thomas Rotherham College?
This year for the ‘specific
feedback’ we focused on recent changes to the A2 scheme of work. In previous
years, A2 students would work on their MCP part 2 right up until the last week
of their coursework at the end of January. This year we changed this so that
they would finish their outcomes before Christmas, giving them a 3 week period
in January to catch up on any sketchbook work or previous outcomes, and raise
the standard of their work.
In the survey we asked if this
was successful or unsuccessful, and to explain this answer. This is what we
received back:
Do you think this was:
|
No.
of Responses
|
Successful
|
41
|
Unsuccessful
|
1
|
Both
|
2
|
‘Successful’
Comments
|
Fine
Art
|
Graphics
|
Photography
|
Had more
time to improve/ raise standards/grade
|
55%
|
66%
|
57%
|
Reduced stress/less
rushed
|
25%
|
22%
|
28%
|
More
organised
|
5%
|
7%
|
|
Allowed time to reflect/make
links to earlier work
|
5%
|
7%
|
|
Gave time to make products in
graphics
|
11%
|
||
Good, but misleading in the
amount of work we would be able to finish off
|
5%
|
||
Good, but made me work slower
up to/during Christmas
|
5%
|
11%
|
‘Unsuccessful/Both’
Comments
|
Not
enough time
|
Too
long
|
Should
have been more focused on organising before Christmas
|
