Director of Makerspace
Employed: 2012+ About I first started working at School 21 in Newham, East London, when it was set up in 2012 and have been privileged to be part of a highly diverse team of teachers developing the curriculum and exploring new pedagogies. I lead the art, design and technology (ADT) department and manage our Makerspace, a new investment made by the school in 2018 in which our central hall has been transformed into into a large open plan studio with four specialist studios catering for fine art, digital design and manufacturing, photography and food technology. Art, Design & Technology (ADT) As an all-through school, I have taught children across the primary to sixth form age range (5-18 year olds) and found each stage has given me a good understanding of how children develop their artistic and creative confidence. In the ADT department, we take an interdisciplinary approach by choosing to teach art and design technology within the same curriculum, which allows us to combine facilities and be less focused on the technological separation between the subjects. However, we still distinguish between the different types of starting points separating those that are more applied and problem-based according to a client brief (design) to those that are more concerned with more personal, aesthetic, expressive and conceptual/issue-based starting points (fine art). There is much debate amongst educationalists about how this combined model has denigrated DT as a specialism and led to a reduction in time within the curriculum and subsequent loss of qualified DT teachers. These are justifiable concerns, especially since DT is largely the best subject to bridge the artificial gap between the arts and sciences. The terms STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and STEAM (including Arts) have sprung up over the past couple of decades to acknowledge the importance of a more interdisciplinary and practical, problem-solving approach to learning, but it has generally resulted in schools running extra-curricular activities and rarely replacing the time lost as a subject. It is an on-going problem and one that has led me to be much more focused on providing an emphasis on design-based projects within our real world learning programme (RWLP). Real World Learning Programme (RWLP) During my time at School 21, I have run many cross-curricular projects and been part of a real-world learning working group supporting and working with staff to develop artistic and/or design-based projects with a community-focus and using the PBL Works Gold-Standards Framework. One of the key purposes of RWLP is to connect young people with professionals and understand that the work they do has real life application and feels authentic. In 2017, when our school opened Six21, our sixth form, I was part of a group of teachers that designed RWLPs that gave students the opportunity to learn about design thinking and develop team working and project management skills around projects that linked to various work sectors. They then referred back to some of these skills when they attend work placements for the second half of the year. Our school often works with outside agencies and has a dedicated team led by the Director of Real World Learning. To view examples of RWLPs that I have worked on by clicking on the relevant sub-menu called RWLP. Exhibitions Another important part of my role involves coordinating whole school exhibitions that celebrates students’ work and learning that develops the head, hand and heart, and includes children aged 5-18. Whole School Exhibitions take place twice a year in the autumn and summer term and involve students from primary to sixth form level and are open to the whole community. |