On the way back from our Manchester Trip last week we ran a Learner Voice survey with our A2 students. See below their feedback and our responses!
What do you love about the art
department at Thomas Rotherham College?
Support from
Teachers and Technicians – 52%
Always
a great one to hear! This year we have had a new addition to the art team in
Kyla! Our new technician who now steps in when Patience is teaching. We have seen a huge
impact from this since Kyla started in November, and it has really helped make
sure that students get as much support as humanly possible from the four of us!
We really appreciate how valued our staff are by the students in the department
and the support they give, whether inside or outside of lessons. So this is
lovely to hear – thank you and we will continue to try and be as helpful and
supportive as we are now!
Facilities and
Skills – 47%
We
have had a lot of love for the variety of skills and techniques taught across
the course, including various printmaking skills and, of course, the darkroom!
This is a facility that always gets a mention, so no surprise a high percentage
of our Photography students said they loved this about the department. Our new
photo studio (improving
the old one was a big wish from previous Learner Voice!), materials in the classrooms that are always
accessible and available to use, and our printmaking facilities were all
mentioned as part of this. Students also mentioned how much they love learning
new techniques when they come to TRC, and leave with the knowledge of lots of
new and exciting skills!
Independence
and Freedom of Ideas – 15%
Students
are encouraged to develop their own personal ideas when thinking about concepts
and pathways, to the point where this year we made sure everyone’s ideas were
different by writing them all on the wall and checking they weren’t too similar
to anyone else’s! This is to ensure everyone has a personal project, but also
gives students the freedom to explore something unique to them and something
that they are truly interested in. Alongside this comes a lot of independence,
and there is a great work ethic in all our students to develop their work
within their own time and independently during lessons. It is great to hear
that so many of you love this aspect of the course and enjoy the freedom and
independence of creating your own projects!
A few
honourable mentions….
·
Trips (15%)
·
New photo studio (specifically
the curtain!) (10%)
·
Positive and friendly working
environment (7%)
·
Open Door (7%)
·
Researching artists (5%)
·
The shop (2%)
What do you wish for in the art
department at Thomas Rotherham College?
More time for presentation
tasks and homeworks – 26%
We
understand that these first few weeks of the Final Independent Project have
been absolutely none stop, and you should all be super proud of what you have
done and achieved in such a short amount of time. You have all got off to the
best start possible for this project, and that is down to your industriousness
working towards these deadlines. However, we do appreciate that expecting this extremely
large amount of work all the time is not realistic or sustainable, hence this weeks homework is
a catch up! We do work against the
clock and try to time each week’s work appropriately, so it is both realistic
but will also get you all the work you need to have before a hand in deadline! This
is a tricky balancing act, but we understand it can sometimes be overwhelming
especially when you do two of our titles. We will definitely look at timings of
this for next year and see where we can give some time back to the students to
help with this.
After college
open door (or more opportunities to book in) – 16%
This
is something we have never had requested before in Learner Voice! As our
booking system only allows 5 students to book in per lesson, and slots only during
the lesson blocks during the day, it can sometimes be difficult for students to
find availability to book in during their frees. So we completely understand
why an after college open door would be really helpful for a lot of students.
We have already discussed this with our Site team, and propose a trial run of
the following open door sessions starting Monday 7th of Feb until
half term. After this we will then decide if it is feasible and worth
continuing for the rest of the year.
After College Open Door (4.00-4.50pm)
Monday and Tuesday
Early Bird Open Door (8.10-9.00pm)
Wednesday and Thursday
We
will add these to the booking sheets and run them the same as other open door
slots, so make sure if you are wanting to use one of these you book in just as
you would during a normal period.
This
is the best solution we could come up with based on staffing and site opening
hours. We will see how these go and if we find it has been helpful for you we
will continue to run this!
Curtain or
blind for door in photography studio – 13%
We
have also already discussed this with our Site team following a large response
here on Learner Voice! A permanent cover cannot be placed on the door due to health
and safety, however they are going to look into a blind/curtain that could be
used temporarily during photoshoots that require it. We will keep you updated
on this!
More trips – 13%
Yes!
We want this too! Among many things, Covid has caused disruption to our general
trip schedule of YSP in Year 1 and Manchester in Year 2. We are so happy with
managed to go to Manchester, despite not having been to YSP with this cohort due
to lockdowns and restrictions. We always love the enthusiasm and industriousness
from students when we go on a trip, and it is always a lovely day out and
change of scenery for us to! It is definitely something we would like to
introduce more of during your time with us. If you have any suggestions what
these trips could be – do let us know!
More memory
space on computers – 10%
We
agree this can be a real issue at times, particularly when uploading
photoshoots or working with large Photoshop files. We will speak to our
computer services team about potentially increasing this on our computers
downstairs.
More table
space for Open Door – 7%
Hopefully
our new Early Bird and After College Open Door’s will help with this by
providing more opportunities to book in. But for those using the slots during
lessons, we have to restrict the amount of people in these for a number of
reasons. Initially it was due to Covid restrictions, but it is also due to the
overall limited space in the classroom and not wanting to overcrowd the rooms
that many people use for busy practical work. Adding more tables may give the
impression of more space, but ultimately would limit the space within the room
itself and could make it more crowded and difficult to work in.
A few
honourable mentions….
More/a better
guillotine
We
are aware that one of the guillotines downstairs is on it’s last legs and cuts
at a funny angle, which is certainly not something what you want in a
guillotine! We will look into fixing this. In terms of more guillotines, we
currently have 5 in the department, and while there is sometimes a queue, 5 is
plenty! There are extremely expensive and believe that the ones we have will do
for the time being. We also have 2 ‘mini’ guillotines downstairs for anyone
cutting smaller work that does not require the A1 guillotines. Ask us about
these if you don’t know what we are talking about as they are really
handy!
Learn more
techniques (e.g. clay, screen printing in art)
We
would love to introduce more techniques and skills into the course, the only
issue is time! It would be difficult to fit more ‘induction’ type techniques
into what is already a super packed course structure, but we will certainly
consider this and see if it is an option.
More printer
credits
We
are looking to raise this again this year. We have always asked for more
printer credits for our students due to the amount of printing they are
required to do for the course, and we still believe this could be a higher
amount, so we will see what we can do.
More packs and
bundles available in the shop all the time
This
is a great idea! We will have a think what packs or bundles would be good to
sell and think about putting these together to sell!
More active on
social media for interaction
We
are always wanting to find new and interesting ways to be more creative and
active on our Instagram! If anyone has any suggestions as to how we can do this
(as you are all a lot younger and more ‘hip’ than us…) then do let us know!
