Last week we finished the first term at St Edmund’s.
This term we have been working closely with both year 12 and 13 on their design skills. We were very aware from the start that ‘design skills’ is a very wide umbrella to work from. When we first started at the school we took the first session to sit down with both the students and the teachers we would be working with to outline what they actually wanted help with. It was clear from this meeting that they needed the most help with physical model making, hand sketching and Photoshop skills. The physical model making and sketching were skills they needed the most as the students had developed a reliance on using computer skills to overcome design objectives. Each week we would prepare a short presentation showing our work and work we have researched on the topic and then undertook a short workshop based on the skills in the presentation. Within the space of a couple of weeks we realised that the students would ask us questions about life when they left 6th form. For example, after a request from the students, we spent a session combing through their personal statements to help them tailor these for the courses they were applying for. This side of the guidance we found the most rewarding as it enabled us to interact with them on a level that they reserve for the teachers they really trust. It was not only a one way street. Through this process we learned quite quickly how to relate a topic to people who do not have as an extensive design background as we do. This is paying dividends in our individual work as it has enabled our presentation techniques to improve dramatically.
Although this is simply a snap shot of what happened in term one, we are looking forward to blogging more about the challenges and experiences that will inevitably come in term 2.
Kwamena, Gurveer and Afdhal.
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