The Project.

To provide a professional screen printing workstation for art, design and enterprise projects.

To provide training for pupils, staff and external agencies in the use of the equipment and the management of a screen printing business.

To provide in depth schemes of work and lesson plans for use with the equipment for art and design based projects.

Reasoning.

Screen printing is a highly lucrative business. It combines skills found in art, design, photography, science and maths. By providing a workstation and appropriate knowledge we will enable students to develop a thriving business that will test their skills in time management, costing and creativity, along with many more.

Planning.

Careful planning is essential. If you are a teacher using the screen printing equipment then preparation is probably 70% of the overall time needed to teach the skills. For the pathfinder project we spent 6 weeks on preparation and planning (this included the production of schemes of work, lesson plans and an instructional DVD).

What is involved.

The project has taught pupils to:

• Design and develop ideas that can be easily transferred into a screen print design.
  
• Understand the process of photo emulsion textile screen printing.
  
• Use photo emulsion to place an image onto a silk screen.
  
• Mix and prepare inks for screen printing.
  
• Use the 5 arm screen printing carousel to print onto paper and cotton garments.
  
• Assess marketing possibilities.
  
• Cost for production.
  
• Plan their time to enable efficient running of a screen printing business.