Graphic Communication website for pupils and teachers

Martin Mathieson is a technical teacher at Linwood High School. He has created a website ( www.graphiccommunication.org.uk ) that features tutorials, worksheets and online tests covering most of the Standard Grade, Higher and Advanced Higher Graphic Communication curriculum. In this class, his S3 pupils follow an online tutorial about pictorial views in order to produce a 3-D drawing of a monorail cabin.

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Teacher profile

Martin has a Bachelor of Technological Education degree from Glasgow University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Computing from Strathclyde University. He has been teaching for 12 years, the last seven of which have been at Linwood High School – where he has special responsibility for graphic communication.

 During his career as a technical teacher, Martin has created many digital resources. In 2003, he decided to gather all these together on a website. Anyone is free to use or download the materials and Martin is very keen that other teachers contribute resources. He sees this method of sharing teaching materials as an important way forward. 'There is no point in teachers reinventing the wheel all the time', he says. 

Martin has completed a New Opportunities Fund (NOF) training course and a Masterclass course; he taught himself Dreamweaver and Flash in order to create the website. 

Linwood High School is in a small town in Renfrewshire. It has 500 pupils, 27 per cent of whom have free school lunches. Fewer than 10 pupils have English as a second language. 

The school has 150 computers and a broadband connection. There are two dedicated ICT rooms. All staff have had NOF training and Renfrewshire Education Authority offers twilight courses.