Teaching art and design at Tonyrefail school Lottie mallen-wallace

Tonyrefail school Tonyrefail School is an 11-18 mixed comprehensive school of approximately 940 students that serves the town of Tonyrefail and the surrounding areas. Currently being built and furnished is the new £40m school building due to be finished near the end 2018. The school aims to give all students the best opportunity to demonstrate their potential within a caring environment. Tonyrefail School has a broad curriculum to match the demands and needs of all of its students whilst providing strong pastoral support to maximise each student’s potential

First day at Tonyrefail First day at the high school placement – I arrived at 9am as requested signed in as a visitor and was greeted by a teaching staff member who showed me around some parts of the school. As I was taken around they talked to be about the different departments I could work in. the last place I was taken to was a classroom of three year 13 sixth form students. Each student was asked to show me their current work and each student had a different independent project brief but the same marking criteria to work to. Student one was working on an architectural piece designing a lakeside resort , they had half a sketchbook full of sketches and annotations along with relevant research and many well presented cad designs showing the building they had developed from their sketches. Student two had a brief to design a laptop tray/storage , they had some designs and annotation in their sketchbook ,although not as much as student one. Their attitude towards work was also different. they seemed more relaxed about their work and not as open to advice or help. Student three was friendly but didn’t appear to have as much work to show as the others and appeared to lack in confidence within  their work and possibly themselves but took ideas towards their project positively, Their project  brief was to design a tablet holder. *personal lesson learnt – Attitude towards work is important …..encouragement seems needed for support and positivity .

Second day at Tonyrefail ART – yr 12 sixth form This was a small class of seven (some student’s were absent) the class seemed quite divided in abilities , three students that’s sat to the corner front of he room were labelled as average to high achievers and in the middle row of the room were the lower achieving students ,struggling to pass this was pointed out by the art teacher. there was also a single student working alone who was also pointed out to be doing well. This class was not being taught anything as such by the teacher as they were all on individual briefs that they had created themselves to adhere to the marking criteria. The three students that were said to be achieving more, put their earphones in and just got on with working in their sketchbooks . the lower performing students however just seemed to sit around looking at their sketchbooks or on their phones until told otherwise by the tutor. I went round each student and looked through their work while they explained their process and design development. then it became apparent to me at what level each student was at from this I could also see where I could help each individual with my current skills within art and design

Lesson plans Although I did not get to deliver my lessons, being a support worker for the past three years I was able to compare teaching /supporting children adult learners and how the situations and learning process would be different and even how the lesson plan would have to be altered to work with the certain needs and abilities of the person. A risk assessment is always done before an activity in my line of work as I have to take into consideration the clients care plan for example a client might have in their care plan that they are not able to use sharp objects so I would have to change the materials or equipment for that activity even a certain activity could take them back to a traumatising place in their life and could trigger aggressive behaviour. Some of my clients refuse to do an activity before they even know what it consists of so it can be a case of encouraging a specific mind set and environment before delivering the idea of something.

Difference in structure from primary school to university From my personal experience in education and from what I have seen from working with children attending education I can see the different structure of learning and teaching styles. In primary schools and secondary school there is a strict curriculum for the teachers to keep the students up to standards with and keep them within a bracket of achieving. In college it was along the lines of being on target and achieving a certain grade to stay within the right criteria but the style of teaching was more relaxed you had to motivate yourself and had to become more independent ,choosing what way your work was going, you could see that some students struggled with this more relaxed and independent way of working and then some excelled because of the freedom they had to take their work to where they wanted to. Id say university is similar in the way it works but obviously the targets are higher more is expected of you as an adult and its preparation for your chosen career.

Overall experience and reflection Overall my experience with Teaching art and design has helped me open up to the idea of teaching although I'm not completely sold on the prospect of a fulltime career in it I defiantly have more or an appreciation of the job role and more of an understanding of the pressures that come with it . Although brief I did enjoy my time in the school the teachers and students were friendly and polite and although I was nervous to be in a new place I felt comfortable working with the students and staff that I did . If I could do this project again I would defiantly aim to be more pro active and organised with my work and required documentation. If I could alter the module to work better for myself and others I would definitely have more teacher training in place before the actual placements as not everybody was ready to deal with situations that can arise in school such as behaviour and fights and teaching in general. I would of also liked more lesson planning sessions as I didn’t feel mine were as good as they could have been.