Last week we ran our Learner Voice survey on the coach back from the YSP trip with our first year students. Here is the feedback we received and our responses to that feedback.
What do you love
about the art department at Thomas Rotherham College?
Facilities and Techniques – 47%
Starting off with an oldie, but a goldie…. the
biggest response (by far!) this year was how much you love the facilities and techniques
in the department! This feedback was a result of all the skills that Art, Graphics
and Photography have learnt so far in this first term, such as intaglio, screen
printing, digital work, using the cameras, and many other techniques. The
darkroom by itself made up almost half of this with 21% of responses overall! All
this also acknowledged that our resources are available for you to use at any
time, and that it is the use and availability of the facilities overall that
you really love. This is always so great to hear folks!
‘Absolutely love the resources readily available’
‘Diverse amount of resources available in
department’
‘How varied the techniques we’re taught are’
‘Experimenting with all subjects such as learning to
use cameras in graphics’
Friendly Atmosphere and Support
from Staff – 15%
Our second most popular response was how much you
loved the general atmosphere of the department and relationships with staff
members. It’s really important to us that you find the department a welcoming
space for you to work in, and that we are always here to help when you need it.
It is always lovely to see this is indeed the case, and so many of you already
feel at home here at TRC, and feel you are getting the support you need.
‘Friendly environment!’
‘Teachers are friendly – A*!
‘Teachers are lovely and care about the students’
’Open environment, teachers and students get along’
Open Door Policy and Spaces to
Work In – 10%
Our open door policy is also always mentioned in our
Learner Voice. It is great to hear you folks speak so positively about the
department and how we encourage you all to come in and utilise the studios
while you’re here at college in your free periods. This isn’t something we plan
on changing any time soon, so we’re glad you appreciate this part of the
department!
‘The big spaces to be as creative as we like’
‘I love the shop and that students can use
computers/work in classroom at any time’
A few honourable mentions….
·
Sketchbooks (13%)
·
Freedom/Independence (9%)
·
Shop/Levi (6%)
·
Organisation and Purple Books (3%)
·
Trips (3%)
What do you wish for in
the art department at Thomas Rotherham College?
Less Homework – 12%
Wouldn’t school and college be great if there wasn’t
any homework eh! Alas, that is the nature of education! Here at TRC all you
subjects require you to do 4 and a half hours’ worth of work outside of your lessons,
whether this is done at home or during your frees at college. We realise the
workload of Art, Graphics or Photography can feel overwhelming at times, however in order to achieve the
grade you aspire to get, you need to
put that time in, it is just the nature of the course. There was a suggestion by
a couple of students to move the homework deadline to Wednesday. We’re not sure
how productive this would be, given that you would still have the same amount
of time to complete the work, however we understand if your lesson is early on
a Monday it can be hard to get things printed and ready for that lesson. We
will discuss this amongst the art team, and see if this will be possible for any
particular blocks.
Unfortunately, we cannot give you more time to spend
on your homework’s. The transition between school and college can feel like
such a big change, particularly when it comes to workload, so we do understand
how this feels to some of you. However, college prepares you for life after you
leave TRC, and helps you improve your personal skills to be more organised and independent
with your work. Challenges such as a tackling
a demanding workload should not be seen as a negative but as evidence to your
level of commitment and effort which is rewarded in the end.. Masterpieces take time to blossom!
More guillotines (specifically
in the darkroom!) – 10%
I think this is the lowest percentage of responses
for guillotines in the history of Learner Voice! We now have four guillotines
in the department which (although they are always busy!) do seem to be enough
for our current students’ numbers. However, as this was still mentioned by a
few of you, we still need to respond to this request. One of our guillotine’s
costs just under £400, which is a lot of money! We cannot currently justify
spending that amount, particularly when only 10% of the department overall have
asked for it, so this currently isn’t doable unfortunately, sorry folks!
However, half of these requests were actually for a
guillotine in the darkroom! Seen as the only way to cut paper in there is to
use scissors, which isn’t very accurate. We will look into purchasing a cheap,
A4 guillotine for those of you that feel this would benefit you when using the
darkroom. We will see how much these are and see what we can do!
More Trips – 10%
Yes please! For the last few years we have always
run a YSP trip with our first years in October, and the Manchester trip in
February for our A2s at the start of their ESA. We are looking this year at
making the A2 Manchester trip a residential which would include a stay over in Liverpool.
We also introduced last year a trip down to ROAR to do life drawing with our
Art and Graphics students, as well as a trip to Wentworth Woodhouse with
Photography. So you do have at least 2 more trips coming up before you finish
the course!
However, according to college policy, students are
only allowed 3 days out for each academic year, and you have probably realised
by now our course is pretty none stop every lesson! So it would also be quite
difficult to fit another trip into our scheme of work. But we encourage you all
to visit galleries independently in your own time as the experience of going
and seeing artwork is so valuable, and can really help you to raise your grade
in your subject.
More Spare Equipment Available/Cheaper
Materials – 8%
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t ask you to pay for
any materials and let you use everything for free as and when you needed it.
However, this unfortunately just cannot be the case. All our materials are
bought at wholesale price, and sold at cost price, so we make no money on our
materials at all. But we do need to make back the money it has cost us, or else
we would be in some serious debt! This also applies to having more materials
out to use in the classrooms. Whenever we have left materials like glue sticks
out, they always just seem to mysteriously vanish! Much like scissors and rolls
of tape seem to! It would be too costly for us to lend out anything more than
we currently do, even equipment like paint brushes either just disappear into
thin air or are not taken care of properly and are left unusable for other
students. So unfortunately, we cannot make this possible.
More Freedom/Start Personal
Projects Sooner – 7%
The project you are currently working on is called
‘Exploring Media’, which runs until just after Christmas. This first half of
the year is dedicated to helping you learn all the skills required to embark on
your own personal project when you start your ‘Major Coursework Project’. It is
in these first few months that you will develop your skills as well as help you
realise where your strengths lie, and what you enjoy. Therefore, it is
necessary to have these lessons so that when you do start your own work, you
feel confident in your skills. So keep it up – your own personal projects are
just around the corner!
Different Chairs in Art Room – 7%
An unsual request! But we did actually get this on
our last A2 learner voice as well, so you may be onto something here! One
student this year has specifically asked for backs on the chairs to make them
more comfortable. As we said in our last Learner Voice, we realise these aren’t
the most comfortable chairs in the world, but they do the job! They have to be
that height due to our tables being quite high, and the logistics of the art
studio mean any bigger chairs would be too cumbersome and mean even less space
up here! We can’t afford to replace all our chairs upstairs with our current
budget as it is not a priority, so they will just have to do folks, sorry!
More/Better Computers – 5%
We would LOVE more computers! Our computer area
seems to get busier and fuller every year, so we would love to have more
computers for our students to work on. However the main issue with this isn’t
just the cost implications, but space! More computers would mean dedicating
more space in the downstairs room to them, and working space downstairs feels
small enough as it is! Unless we were to have an extension – which we would
also LOVE – we can’t make space for more computers.
One student also requested iMacs for the department,
this would not be possible due to the college not having the infrastructure to
support Apple computers. Also, we do not think we would benefit from using
Apple over Windows, each can be used to a high technical level when used
correctly, and having more expensive equipment does not automatically mean
better quality work. Our computers are a tool just as our printmaking equipment
is for example, it is the way you use it that matters, so make sure you use it
creatively in order to produce a high standard of work. Don’t rely on fancy,
showy off equipment to make your work shine - use your skills and talent!
More Space to Work in Frees –
5%
Again, unless we were to have an extension built on
our department, there isn’t much we can do about this unfortunately! We try and
utilise the space we have as best we can every year to create working space for
classwork and students working in frees. Next year we can always have a look at
rejigging things to try and accommodate even more outside working space.
Remember even if you are a single endorsement student, you are always welcome
to use other areas of the department, for example Graphics and Photography
students, you are welcome to use the tables upstairs when working in your
frees.
Nothing! – 5%
This is always lovely to hear! Thank you!
More Print Credits/Better
Printer – 4%
This is something we get year after year, and this
isn’t something we are actually in control of! Printer credits are dealt with
at the LRC, and how much you receive does not go through us. However, as this
always gets mentioned in Learner Voice, we have managed in the past to get more
printer credits for Art, Graphics and Photography students as you do require more
than other students’ round college. We will keep fighting your corner with
this!
A few honourable mentions….
More chance to use textiles
We do have a sewing machine in the department which
you are welcome to use anytime. As we don’t normally have a high demand for textile
work, we don’t have that much equipment or materials related to it to hand.
However if you are wanting to incorporate textiles in your work when you start
your coursework feel free to come and chat to me (Patience!) about what
equipment you would like to use, and I can have a look at ordering some in if
there is a demand for it 😊
Intro Lesson to Photoshop
We are hoping to create a handful of basic tutorials
on YouTube to help those who feel they need a bit more support with Photoshop. These
should be up by the end of the year for anyone to look at and use. Hopefully
this will help with this a bit!
Print in Glossy Paper on Other
Printers in College
I will speak to Reprographics about whether this is
possible, even if it is just on one of the LRC printers, it would be really
helpful I’m sure for a lot of students!
3D Printer
Would be amazing! But the cost and technicalities of
this are not possible at this moment in time.
121s to say what we’re doing
well and what we need to improve
You will start receiving 121s regularly once you
start your Major Coursework Project.
Some limited resources e.g no basic
acrylics
I’m not sure what this response meant, but if this
meant that we don’t have a lot of resources out like basic acrylics, I can
assure you we do! We have all the primary acrylics in cool and warm colours, as
well as white. We also have a lot of materials out in the classrooms such as
pencils, scissors, tape, pastels etc, which are all located in the material
drawers at the back of the room upstairs, and next to the teacher desk
downstairs.
Epson Scanners
We
have scanners! There have been a few technicalities with the ones connected to
the computer, but these should all be working now. We also have the printer
which doubles up as a scanner! You can use this whenever you need to 😊
