The use of spoken English is promoted within sessions to all learners through contributing to informal peer group discussion, formal critiques, verbal critical evaluations, and the development of independent learning skills.

Students use of written English is developed through written information gathering, essay writing, note taking, sketchbook annotation and the development of a specialist vocabulary. Students will develop the skills to read research information and interpret or translate it into something more accessible.

Students are encouraged to see the importance in terms of their own progression of using correct technical and professional vocabulary when completing written work in both sketchbooks and reports.

Digital methods of supporting the development of their language will be encouraged and the use of the Chrome add-on Grammarly will be discussed within appropriate sessions and SOLA to support their understanding of context, subject-verb agreement, homophones and other grammatical errors.

The daily application of numeracy skills is encouraged through estimation and calculation when planning design work and presentations, scaling and inputting of sizes when photocopying, page layouts and translating to digital versions, marking up for the mounting of work for presentation, print cost calculations and paper sizing. 

Numeracy focus in the design workplace will also include: Golden ratio: found affecting proportions from famous artwork such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” to the outline for a website design. 

Fibonacci sequence: the string of numbers derived from adding the previous two numbers resulting visually in a spiral – important in grids and layout. 

Rule of thirds: the imaginary three by three grid divides any design or image and helps understand how the eye will move through a work. 

Understanding digital units and conversions: an essential part of the graphic vocabulary.

Images and image resolution: knowing what these dpi numbers mean can make it easier for students to understand the relationships between shape, size and image quality. 

Bleed, trim and safe areas: specific to print and essential to understand in the professional environment.