I emailed a PGCE teacher at Doverbrookes in Oxford called Rachel Payne, who taught my mum when she was studying for her teaching degree. Her email reply was as follows:
1. How long have you been teaching for?
15 years
2. What area of Art & Design do you specialise in?
I have a Fine Art: painting degree but have also worked in illustration, design and craft. As an academic I teach across art, craft and design in education, and I also teach media studies and film analysis.
3. What inspired you to teach?
A desire to examine and explore the visual world with others.
4. Have you only ever taught undergraduates? Or do you have experience in other key stages?
I have taught 11-18 years in secondary school, Undergraduates, PGCE students and Postgraduate MA students.
5. What methods of printing would you suggest for Key Stage 1? Key Stage 2? Key Stage 3?
KS1: potato, monoprint; KS2: same as KS1 but also with lino (probably adigraf) and collagraph; KS3: monoprint, collagraph, lino, etching/dry point, screen print
6. What do you, personally, teach when it comes to printing methods?
This is a huge question - are you referring to subject matter or printing processes? Either way, each print method dictates a different set of print processes, involves different materials, equipment and activities, different subject knowledge, different management and organisational procedures and consideration of health and safety. Saying that, I don't actually teach print any more, so I'll pass on this question.
7. What are the learning objectives that you need to meet in your lessons?
This is also an impossible question to answer specifically. The learning objectives will differ according to the age of the learner and the activity (or stage of activity) that is being engaged with. So, LO for a Year 4 pupil when monoprinting may well be different for a Year 9 pupil when monoprinting.
8. Do you have any suggestions for what I could include in my info-pack? For example, what types of printing are accessible to anyone? This wouldn't include printing methods such as metal etching, as not every school can apply these facilities.
Basic monoprint, embossing and imprinting are accessible to all ages. I recommend that for an info-pack to be useful it needs to be age appropriate; it needs to include step by step processes which can be represented through visuals - so, for example, by presenting prints in their different stages of completion (stage 1, 2, 3 etc.) together with descriptions using key terminology. You also need to show what happens when something is unsuccessful e.g. applying too much ink. There also needs to be some contextual studies, images of others' work that link to the processes being examined - make sure these are varied and diverse including images by male and female artists, from different cultures and people still alive.
I basically want to focus on the types of printing that every school could teach and maybe the students could practice at home as well - for example any school would be able to teach collagraph printing, and the children could even take this home with them to work upon.
9. Do you think an info-pack would be more helpful if it was aimed at the students or the teachers? Do schools often supply books that the children can work from?
Creating a video of a printing process is really useful, and the info pack could supplement this. It could be devised in a way that supports pupil enquiry and so be aimed at them, not the teacher.
10. Which method of printing would you say is the cheapest? Most expensive?
If you are considering school equipment and resourcing, then monoprint (including potato etc.) is the cheapest, although collagraph is pretty inexpensive, as is dry point. Anything that demands specialist equipment like presses, beds etc. (etching, screen print) will be much more expensive. Choice of paper will have an impact on the quality of prints, but this is optional.
