Rotherham College Art Taster Sessions Paint a Picture of Potential Future for Wickersley Pupils

Year 10 and 11 pupils from Wickersley School recently took part in several art lessons at Rotherham College in a bid to gain first-hand experience of college life.

The taster sessions, led by Rotherham College Art Tutor Katrina McAlister, allowed pupils the chance to experience the College’s art offering, including trying out techniques such as Frottage (a method which involves rubbing materials on an uneven surface to form a work of art), wax resist and collage, with a range of materials such as Parisian dye, oil pastel, chalk pastel and graphite.

Katrina said: “We welcome schools to come in for these sessions as we find they are really helpful to pupils who aren’t sure what they’d like to do at college. It not only lets pupils see what is available to them on the course, but also gives them a chance to see what the environment is like at college.”

Wickersley Partnership Trust Careers and Post-16 Transitions Manager Rachel Mullins works closely with Rotherham College’s Schools Liaison team to help pupils explore their Further Education options.

Rachel said: “My job is to make sure pupils go on to do what they want to do, but many of them aren’t sure what that is. The art sessions have been a great opportunity for the pupils to chat with tutors at Rotherham College and explore what they might be interested in doing, experience the environment they would study in as art learners, and see the current students at work. For the pupils it’s much more experiential than simply looking in a prospectus.”

Rachel added: “One of the best things is that we’ve seen the current college art learners, which is brilliant because they all want to come and talk about the work they are doing, which provides a real view of what prospective learners would be doing.”

Find out more about our Arts courses.