MAD again

The annual arts festival at Waddesdon Manor has provided the venue for the second exhibition of A grade A level work from Bucks schools. It is an opportunity to show some of the extraordinary work being produced by our 6th form students.

Once again there was an outstanding entry from Chesham High school in the form of two massive cocks made from torn cardboard over a metal armature. This complemented the torso from plastic spoons which was exhibited last year and sold to Lord Rothschild.

However, several schools were unable to send work for the exhibition this year because moderation was still underway. It may be that there is a need to consider whether there is a better time and venue for this exhibition.

BATA or Bucks Art Teachers Association

We have been trying to establish an association for Bucks art teachers. This will enable them to be pro-active in managing and developing the support networks that can be so important at a time of far reaching change. The difficulty has not been the basic premise, which almost everyone accepts, but in taking that first step in establishing an infrastructure. We have been seeking to find a critical mass for this for almost 12 months now but at every meeting the numbers are just not high enough to give us confidence to proceed. However, at a meeting at Wadesdon Manor despite the relatively small numbers we agreed to proceed anyway. A brief constitution has been produced and circulated and no objections or amendments have been received. It does require the identification of officers or representatives at some stage but for the moment it was agreed to just begin and set up some meetings. So that is what will happen. There will be meetings in the north and south initiated by Chalfonts Community College and Waddesdon C of E School. In the meantime I will seek establish a comprehensive emailing list which can be used by the fledgling association.

NSEAD a new role

It is worth noting that the role of national subject associations has changed radically this year. In art the subject association is NSEAD. Traditionally the subject association has taken the role of subject champion and sometimes a trades union. However, as the key subject associations have now been commissioned to deliver the training for the new national curriculum their national role has changed. It suggests that they have taken on a much stronger partnership with national agencies and have a much more important strategic role.

This suggests that teachers should consider the benefits of becoming a member of their subject association. In art, membership of NSEAD will provide access to up to the minute news, advice, newsletters and a professional journal. It will also provide opportunities to contribute to the national debate.

The New Secondary Curriculum

It's always the way: you don't see an art adviser for years and then three come along together. It was good to welcome Dr John Steers and John Bowden to Bucks. They are the two national subject leaders for art and I have known and worked with them for the last two decades.

The art conference on Monday 21 April was important on a variety of levels. It was useful to bring into Bucks the national training programme. The key message of this is that we are moving away from a period of intense national prescription into a period where schools and teachers are being encouraged to take ownership of their curriulum and make it relevant to their own distinctive students, aspirations and context. In Bucks this will mean that the curriculum of a girls grammar school in Beaconsfield is likely to be very diferent to that of a mixed upper school in Aylesbury. The key resources, information and links from this event have been added to the Bucksgfl art website.

It was also good to have an opportunity for art teachers to meet and share experiences. In the next few years there will be many very significant changes to the educational landscape (diplomas, vocational education, new technologies, personalised learning, the new secondary curriculum, etc. etc.) and it will be important for teachers to be able to continue to be able to meet and share ideas. It was noted that in Bucks, as in many other Local Authorities, there is no longer an art adviser or consultant and that it will be harder to sustain the network of art teachers. It was agreed to develop an art teachers' forum to secure the networks. The forum will enable art teachers to take ownership of events such as the MAD art exhibitions. It will also enable art teachers in Bucks to sustain a working relationship with the Local Authority which will support their professional development.

A few art teachers will meet soon to create an initial constitution for the forum. This will be put to a meeting and hopefully adopted. It is encouraging that there is also likely to be an opportunity to sustain the relationship with John and John and NSEAD who will be pleased to provide further support for Bucks art teachers.

A Virtual Parents Meeting

Follow this link to see a recording of a virtual parents meeting. This is an online meeting set up by Greg Hodgson for parents of his GCSE students. Greg is talking about the digital art GCSE course he has set up at Chalfonts Community College. The course makes excellent use of the Bucks VLE (Moodle) which is free to all Bucks schools.

You will join the meeting about half way through. It is taking place Thursday evening at 7.30pm. Greg is talking from his home with a glass of wine and a standard broadband connection. A second teacher (Hannah) is also at work in the meeting, again from her home. You will hear Greg talking about the digital art course and how students use the VLE. He shows examples of students' work and how the VLE supports their learning and asessment. He not only provides information about the course, but also explores how parents might support their children.

You will see on the left hand side of the screen that about 24 families have logged in to the meeting. They use text to greet each other and to ask questions. Hannah is managing this part of the meeting and this allows Greg to concentrate on his presentation. You can hear Greg deciding to show the work of one student because her parents have joined the meeting. At the end of the meeting Greg picks up and answers some parents' questions.. Some families joined the meeting together, others joined separately as students logged on from their room. Perhaps 40 people were involved altogether. Other parents can watch the recording afterwards. The whole thing took about 30 minutes.

The parents did not need a training course they were just sent the URL and invited to log in at a particular time. the whole thing was done with domestic broadband. In Bucks all schools have access to this facility - free.

I find this absolutely fascinating, not least because to listen to Greg it sounds perfectly natural for him to be chatting to parents in this way. It changes my perception of how online meetings can be used. I had thought that it was important that there was full two way connectivity between all parties. But this often led to bandwidth problems and 45 minutes of texting 'I cant hear U' or 'is yr camera on?'. Greg demonstrates that it is easy to make a presentation to an audience, anywhere and that the audience can engage easily using text.

This meeting was between a couple of teachers and 24 families one evening. However, it not difficult to think of many other uses. Some of us are involved in developing ideas for the new Diploma's. At present there is much discussion of how students need to move to different venue's for different aspects of the courses. This use of online presentations may be useful.

I hope you find it as fascinating as I do.