Skills in The Making is an innovative three year professional development programme for art teachers, which aims to address the concerns expressed in Ofsted's April 2009 report, about the teaching of craft and design. It provides trainee and established teachers with a unique opportunity to learn new concepts and practical craft skills with internationally acclaimed makers, and thus enhance their own teaching and learning.
We have chosen to pilot the first year of the programme in partnership with a single PGCE Art & Design Course provider, Oxford Brookes University, in order to provide an in-depth model for delivery that can be replicated by other initial teacher training courses throughout the country. Oxford Brookes currently has trainees on placement in five counties - Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, which will enable the programme to have a sustained strategic impact within the secondary education sector.
Each year of the three years, we will organize the following initiatives: craft training weekends with leading makers; studio visits for trainee teachers; makers in residence at regional trainee-placement schools and CPD seminars. We also plan to provide an online 'toolkit' for teachers.
The programme is funded by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
The Aims of Skills in the Making
Download them here:
The Aims of Skills in the Making.doc (67 KB)
The Aims of Skills in the Making.pdf (40KB)
Skills in the Making targets craft shortfall in UK school
This summer The Making launches a new educational programme to bring craft and design directly into British schools.
click for press release: 15 September 2009 (57 KB)
