OUGD504: Secondary Research For Design For Print

by Roxxie Blackham on Friday, 15 November 2013

After the group crit with Lorraine and Phil, I found that my target audience is a little bit too broad and should be researched into further.

It was suggested that I could think about designing for a particular key stage at school, and so I thought about looking into learning outcomes that teachers at primary schools need to overcome when teaching their students art.

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/primary/b00198792/art/ks1

I thought I'd send some questions to my mum, as she's taught in primary and secondary schools and currently teaches KS3 children, both with learning difficulties and those not.


Her reply was in an email as follows:

To be honest, most Primary Schools don't teach Art very often as a separate subject. It's usually just for 'decorating' topics. So if they're learning about Ancient Greeks, the pupils might make a poster about the Greeks and paint a Greek Urn on it.... Some schools do offer Art once a fortnight as a whole afternoon session. 
 
The Dragon School in Oxford are really good with their Art provision. It might be worth getting in touch with them and asking if their Head of Art wouldn't mind answering a questionnaire for you? Also, Independent Primary Schools often have pupils who want to go on to Senior Schools and get Art Scholarships so they will offer more Art specific teaching than at your normal State run Primary School.

I think your focus on KS1 and 2 Art is an excellent one! OH ALSO......contact Rachel Payne, she's my old PGCE Art Tutor, email below, and ask her! She's BRILLIANT and knows EVERYTHING about Art Education, although she is secondary Art, she knows the right people! (I'll send her a quick email to let her know who you are)



I also asked her 9 more specific questions for her to answer so I had a bit more of an idea of what to ask my next contact...


1. Where else do you think I could go with my idea? How can I narrow this down further? The crit left me a bit scuppered and now I'm just throwing ideas around and not really deciding where to go with them.
Contact Rachel, I've emailed her and she's more than happy to help!

2. What methods of printing would you suggest for children in key stage 1? in key stage 2? and in key stage 3?
Vegetable and poly-block for KS2 really Poly-block and collagraph for KS3

3. Are there any children in your art classes with "special needs"? How do they cope with art? Is it significantly different? Is it something to consider?
Yes, I've got lots! Downs Syndrome, Pre School level (P scale), ADHD, EAL, Dyslexic, Dyspraxia, Deaf and several behavioural and emotional needs! Learning Support Assistants are brilliant but I only have those for pupils who have been 'statemented' like the Downs girl and the Pre School levels girl. You would need to consider these things if you're going to focus on school resources for your final piece.....

4. What do you, personally, teach your classes when it comes to types of printing?
Poly-block, collagraph, etching using acrylic sheet.

5. What paints do schools supply?
We use ink for printing rather than paint. Water based for poly and coll, oil based for etching

6. What are the learning outcomes that you need to meet in your lessons?
Learning outcomes? Do you mean objectives? IE; what are they meant to learn? If so; new skills, processes, colour mixing, composition, using new tools, contextual studies, working with a group, pattern, repeat pattern, mixing media.....

7. When you used to help teach reception, did you find teaching art a challenge with younger children?
No, reception was fun!! just play, play, play!! learning through play :D

8. How did you keep younger children engaged with art?
Young children LOVE Art! But tasks need to be simple and done step by step. Having examples of each step and a finished one is a good idea too!

9. Do we have any potato prints I've done / Lee / Merlin when we were young?
Dunno, I'll have a look

I found mum's reply extremely helpful, as it gave me more of an insight into the kind of practices schools teach when it comes to printing. I was actually quite surprised at how well my mum replied - she's always extremely helpful when I'm stuck with design work, but she's never been one to text or email me much so it was really useful how detailed her explanations were and the fact that she's given me another contact or two.
Asking someone more experienced in the target audience area has definitely given me something to think about.

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