On entering Leonardo House, you can tell straight away that you’re somewhere special. The walls of the building, where art and design and science are taught at West Suffolk College, breathe with students’ work from both disciplines, like some sort of cutting-edge gallery.

In the school of art and design, a collection of reference books sits beside this month’s glossy art, science and technology magazines, with works-in-progress lining the corridors. It feels like a living, vibrant studio space, worthy of its Renaissance namesake.

It feels like a living, vibrant studio space, worthy of its Renaissance namesake

The MARS Award, created by the school’s director, Derek Johnson, is a project that merges maths, art, religion and science. It was born of a meeting of minds in the college’s staffroom. “Academic collaborations between staff happen naturally,” Johnson says. “Lots of good ideas come from people chatting over a cup of tea.”

And this year the project gained national recognition when it won the prize for best teaching and learning initiative at the Tes FE Awards 2017. Days later, the college’s innovative work was even lauded by prime minister Theresa May (see box, below).

The project can trace its origins back to 2013. Johnson was researching Cern, home of the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, on the internet when he came across a photo of a statue of the Hindu god Shiva, positioned right outside Cern’s Geneva campus.

Worlds collide

Johnson was fascinated. “Shiva is known as the creator and the destroyer who dances to the pulse of the universe,” he explains. “There were obvious links to the ‘God particle’. I found it fascinating, especially in a European setting.”

This inspired a series of creative works at the college based on the collision of art, science and religion. “The art work that came from that project was really powerful and made us recognise that there was something there to develop,” Johnson recalls.

Maths was then added to the group of subjects, allowing clear articulation and development of mathematical elements already present within the art and design curriculum, from teaching proportion, measurement and scale within fashion textiles, to ratio and timing within photographic chemical dark rooms. The aim was to seek out opportunities to enhance maths education.

Though the college’s maths and science departments are regularly consulted, it is still art and design lecturers who deliver the MARS project. And this necessitates extensive research and ongoing learning for the staff involved - an exciting form of CPD, which banishes any notion of subject stagnation, Johnson explains.

“There’s always a danger in education of rolling out the same old stuff as last year that’s safe and doesn’t need much planning. But that takes the fun out of teaching. I’m always telling the students to take risks, to be brave in the subject, so we have to be as well.”

Staff have embraced the challenge. This year, 80 per cent of level 3 students have progressed to university, gaining places at institutions such as Central Saint Martins, Goldsmiths and the London College of Fashion.

Student David Ogannesjancs is in his first year on the level 3 art and design diploma. The impact that the MARS project has had on him is clear. “Many people look at life from their own filter,” he says. “By learning about all these subjects through the MARS project, it gave us lots more filters to see the world through. It gave us other ideas and helped us think in a different way.”

Creative freedom

In order for projects such as this to get off the ground, there has to be buy-in from senior management. Johnson reports directly to his namesake Lindsey Johnson, the college’s vice-principal for curriculum and quality.

She says: “We need people like Derek to push the envelope. Students and their success are at the heart of everything we do. We’ll talk over ideas, whether or not we can manage it financially, discuss the risks and mitigate for them. But ultimately if it’s the right thing for the students, let’s do it.”

West Suffolk has a £30 million turnover and around 3,000 16- to 18-year-olds on its books. It’s the only college in the Eastern region that’s growing in student numbers and one of few colleges that is financially stable in these difficult times. Being in a position where staff aren’t worrying about a threat of redundancy creates a platform where innovation thrives, the vice-principal explains.

Having that stability allows lecturers to be more creative, to be bolder, because that whole area of stress isn’t taking up time and energy

“Having that stability allows lecturers to be more creative, to be bolder, because that whole area of stress isn’t taking up time and energy.”

Since their success at the Tes FE Awards, Johnson and his team have been running training events for other colleges and universities to share their experience and practices.

He is keen for the project to keep growing and to continue sharing the idea that everyone pulling together can be very powerful. So what’s next for this ambitious project?

“We would love to build more collaborations with the world of science and the art world over here and internationally,” he says. “We’d love for everyone to see that FE is creating incredibly challenging projects that really stretch inquisitive minds.”

With West Suffolk College’s own Leonardo leading the way, the MARS Award proves that the sky’s the limit.

Sarah Simons works in colleges and adult community education in the East Midlands, and is the director of UKFEchat. She tweets @MrsSarahSimons