Ms Shan Samuel-Thomas BA (Hons), MA Ed, PGCE, Estyn Trained Inspector

• Lead in the Arts
• Curriculum Leader – Secondary PGCE Art & Design

My professional work revolves around my experience of leading a PGCE Secondary Art and Design programme, working in and with schools throughout Wales in the context of a teacher and Head of Department; GCSE Art and Design moderator, Principal Examiner and Co-Chief Examiner; teacher trainer; CPD provider, Art and Design Inspector and Artes Mundi teacher trainer. 

• Member of the National Society for Education in Art & Design
• the Mission Gallery
• Swansea Art and Design Teachers’ Network
• Swansea Arts in Education Society and the Saatchi Gallery Teachers’ Network

• S-PGCE Art & Design – Modules 1-5.
• S-PGCE Art & Design school visits to observe and assess trainees teaching.
• Lead – Module 03.
• Lead – secondary, Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig.
• S-PGCE lead lecture on Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig.
• Faculty Rep – Health & Safety.
• Chair- S-PGCE Student Forum.
• Internal Assessor – Graduate Diploma.
• MA supervisor.

A doctoral research project exploring the attitudes and perceptions of teachers of Art & Design in Key Stage 3 towards Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig and the opportunities provided by the study of contemporary artists in Wales to fulfil this curriculum requirement. 

• S-PGCE teacher education and training in Art & Design.
• The teaching of Art & Design in KS3, KS4 and the Sixth Form.
• Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig in Art & Design.
• The use of cutting edge contemporary art in the secondary school Art & Design curriculum.
• Assessment in Art & Design – KS3, KS4 and the Sixth Form.

• WJEC CPD provider for serving art & design teachers providing GCSE Art & Design training.
• Contributor to the new WJEC GCSE Art & Design specification through the development of resources based on Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig and sample assessment materials.
• Appointed as External Examiner for the S-PGCE in Art & Design at Bath Spa University in 2015.
• Contributor to ‘Lightbox’, WJEC online GCSE resource materials.  Filmed by the WJEC  analysing a GCSE candidate’s Photography and Lens Based Media work. This film is now available on the WJEC website and serves as guidance for learners, teachers, parents/guardians.
• Co- writer of WJEC GCSE Art and Design examination paper for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. This role is ongoing.
• Principal Examiner and a Team Leader for GCSE Art & Design at the WJEC which involves planning and delivering training on an annual basis for 60 GCSE moderators and cross-moderating their assessment of candidates’ work by sampling their input as visiting moderators in schools across Wales and parts of England.
• Filmed by Cardiff Metropolitan University providing feedback in Welsh to a PGCE Secondary Art & Design student following a lesson observation at Amman Valley School. This became available as a DVD to exemplify good practice in January 2013.
• Filmed by the WJEC providing effective and ineffective ways of delivering feedback to schools following a GCSE moderation exercise. This was supported by written guidance which is included in moderators’ annual documentation and the film is currently used in training sessions.
• As a result of my research for a PhD, I was approached by the Artes Mundi Contemporary Art Organisation to deliver training days for serving teachers on how to use cutting edge contemporary art in the secondary school classroom. I have done this on an annual basis for the last 8 years.
• I was an External Examiner for the PGCE Secondary Art & Design programme at UWE and Brighton until August 2013. Until 2012 I was the external for the MA and Higher Diploma (equivalent to PGCE) Art & Design programmes at Cork and undergraduate BA Art & Design with QTS at Brighton. I was the External Examiner at Plymouth University until 2010.
• Up until 2010 I did a large number of Art & Design inspections for Estyn in secondary schools across Wales. Details can be supplied on request.
• Pre-inspection reviews of several Art Departments in South Wales up to 2012.
• GCSE INSET for Art & Design staff at Sandfields Comprehensive School, Port Talbot – July 2013.

Currently working on a publication concerning how schools might work with Art & Design pupils in galleries in Barcelona, discover purposeful links with Y Cwricwlwm Cymreig along with strategies to build on those experiences to generate imaginative art work on their return to school.

• UCET Arts Forum.
• GTCW grant achieved to develop an Art & Design KS3 assessment model to be used across partnership schools and by all Art & Design trainee teachers.
• Organiser of twenty conferences based on contemporary issues for serving teachers under the title of ‘The Horizon Programme’.
• Organiser and presenter of numerous Art & Design CPD events for serving teachers at UWTSD-SM and Pembrokeshire Local Authority. These include: ‘Contemporary Approaches to learning and Teaching in Art & Design’, ‘Chronic Clebran’ – developing literacy through Art & Design’, ‘Skill Up and Rejuvenate your Teaching’ (focus on rug-making and printmaking techniques), ESDGC in Art & Design, etc. At present, I am planning a course on numeracy in Art & Design and textile techniques.
• Keynote speaker at Artes Mundi training days for serving teachers and Heads of Art.