I am currently working as an art support assistant in a large inner-city primary school. Within school my role has been to implement the new art and design QCA scheme of work.

After trialling the documentation in different year groups throughout the school it was suggested to me that the sample lessons and ideas I had produced would be useful to non-specialist teachers.

The school has Beacon status and has therefore been working in close partnership with other schools in the local community. These schools have expressed an interest in the way we have incorporated our Art and Design into an already overloaded curriculum.

They have specifically asked for advice on how to develop the skills required in each unit, so I produced a publication in proof form. My aim from this publication was to provide ideas and advice on developing pupil skills within the QCA document.

I have worked alongside practising teachers to plan specifically to meet the learning outcomes within the document, I also set out sample lessons to demonstrate how the skills could be developed into a unit of work linked to a common theme.

I also showed how the lessons were organised and what resources were needed. At considerable cost I packaged the proof and sent it off to as many publishers and institutions as possible, even the DfES and QCA

Can you imagine my dismay when some people couldn’t be bothered to reply or send the proof back?nbsp;Those that did agreed with the fact that this was indeed a useful document and would I like to hand over my work so they could pass it on to other teaching staff, of course for no remuneration.

I am fortunate to work for a great headteacher, in a forward-thinking school, but feel that if I had called myself an artist and not a classroom assistant when writing this proof it may have now be being used in the most effective place - the classroom.

Lynn Hughes
Art Support Assistant
Town Field Primary School
Doncaster