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PRINTIT! DOUBLES UP FIRST-YEAR TAKE-UP TARGET
Added: (Mon Oct 24 2005)
Over 500 schools and 22,000 students sign up as teaching support packs win professional praise
PrintIT!, the printing industry's schools-based initiative to encourage more young people to think about careers in print, will get under way in October with over 500 schools and almost 22,000 GCSE students signed up – more than twice the target for its first year – and with teachers full of praise for the specially-commissioned teaching materials backing the effort.
Over the next eight weeks teachers and students will work on a curriculum-mapped project as part of the first-year GCSE Graphic Products course. Supported by tailored teaching resource packs and workbooks, students will be introduced to the wide variety of processes and sophisticated digital technologies used in today's printing industry. In a novel move designed to bring the practical applications of printing to life, the central component of PrintIT! will challenge students to devise a 'print-centric' promotional campaign for leading charity The Fairtrade Foundation, to promote Fairtrade fruit in supermarkets and other retail outlets.
The campaigns will be judged during January 2006 and the finalists will be invited to a preview event as part of the Stationers’ Careers day, which will be held in March 2006, at the prestigious Stationers’ Hall in London, where students will see a showcase of the latest printing technology. The short listed students and their teachers will then be invited to attend an awards ceremony in April at IPEX 2006, one of the largest print exhibitions in the world at the NEC, where the competition winners will be announced.
Prizes such as digital cameras and digital printing equipment will be awarded to both winning students and schools. The overall winning group and their teacher will also win a trip to the Windward Islands, courtesy of PrintIT!, where they will have an opportunity to visit Fairtrade banana producers.
Teachers welcome tailored support materials
A major contributor to the high take-up of PrintIT! has been the quality and relevance of the teaching support packs, which have drawn very positive comment from teachers.
The course content and curriculum-mapped lessons were written by Joanne Hayes, assistant head of faculty at Ashfield School in Kirby-in-Ashfield and a lead practitioner with the Specialist Schools Trust. Martyn Elmy, Chairman of PrintIT! says that close working between the printing industry and the education community has been a feature of the initiative right from the outset. “With the help of the SST, we worked with the teachers of GCSE Graphic Products to produce superb support material – after all, you can have the best idea for a competition in the world, with the best prizes and partners, but if teachers don’t have the material to teach the fundamental concepts you cannot meet your goals."
The packs, developed to provide a stimulating print-centric course for students whilst relieving the increasing burden on teachers to prepare their course programmes, comprise seven elements: Teacher Course Book, Student Work Book, printdynamics™ CD Rom pack, 'Think About Print' and 'Print Careers' booklets, a pack of 176 large-format laminated playing cards and a laminated capacity folder to hold the course books.
"This fantastic pack is a credit to the people behind PrintIT!," comments Paul Adkins, head of computers, design and technology at Lime House School in Carlisle.
Julia Clouter, a design and technology teacher from Stradbroke High School, Eye, Suffolk, commented on how few resource materials teachers previously had to teach students about print – and how the availability of new materials from PrintIT was "very, very timely.
"With the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations board having recently advised us that over 25% of the marks awarded for GSCE Graphic Products and Graphic Design courses will now be based on a knowledge of printing and CAD/CAM, the timing of PrintIT! and the support teaching materials and student work books is spot on!"
John Huxtable, head of design and technology at Blue School, Wells, Somerset, is also impressed by the quality of the teaching pack. "The PrintIT! course materials are exactly what we need. In fact, the quality of the pack is so good it surpasses anything we have had before. The content is exciting and well devised. There are plenty of high-quality visuals which will make the teaching of GCSE Graphic Products so much more interesting and relevant."
Mr Huxtable is also impressed with the printdynamics™ software that supports the technical aspects of the course. "This is something which was desperately needed. The software is so powerful, giving access to information in every area of printing and graphic arts. You can drill down through each process, such as papermaking, where you can follow the path from the preparation of pulp from trees right through to the coating and finishing processes. It is an excellent teaching aid."
ENDS
Participating school’s list and images available at http://www.adcomms.co.uk/cpressr2.aspx?prid=6145
EDITOR'S NOTES
The UK printing industry: The printing, packaging and graphics communications industry is part of the UK's fifth largest manufacturing industry. In 2002 sales of printing and publishing, pulp, paper and paper products were £45.4 billion.
The value of sales in the printing industry is over £14.1 billion, 1.4% of UK GDP (£1,044.1 billion in 2002) and an approximate Gross Value Added of £6.9 billion. It makes a positive balance to the UK trade balance.
In 2002 the printing sector’s contribution was £438 million, improving to almost £609 million in 2003. The UK printing industry employs around 191,000 people in more than 18,000 companies, spread throughout the UK.
Issued on behalf of Print IT! by AD Communications Ltd.
For further information, please contact:
Lucy O’Dea/Clare Whiston Paul Evans
AD Communications Ltd Picon
Tel: 01372 464470 Tel: 01483 412000
Email: lodea@adcomms.co.uk paul@picon.co.uk
cwhiston@adcomms.co.uk