During a Collaboration Day on April 17, 2019, members of our Art department spent 75-minutes talking about the idea of developing a "Visual Arts Learner Profile". They are interested in building off of the RHS Learner Profile to better and more holistically describe the attributes of an art learner. They shared that students too often give up on their creativity as they have a very narrow definition of what "good" or "talented" means in art. While the teachers are just beginning this journey, they hope to continue their shift to a more descriptive and reflective approach to assessment (moving away from letter grades) that also includes opportunities for students to self-assess, using a learning map that included and articulated the language of their Visual Arts Learner Profile.

This is evidence of how a 'learner profile' can influence and encourage collaborative and innovative thinking about what we are trying to nurture in our students - across the school and within departments.  A comment from the session by an experienced art teacher:

"Artists need to be creative. They certainly need to be resilient and risk-takers...no one grows very much inside of their comfort zone...it would be helpful to frame all of our art courses around the attributes that we are trying to develop in all students. Perhaps we could have students visually represent the attributes as well..."