John Bowden M.A; FNSEAD
After a period teaching in Birmingham, John lectured in painting at Bretton Hall College in Yorkshire. He was then a senior art and design Adviser/Inspector in a large local education authority. More recently he worked as an Ofsted Inspector in the Arts whilst developing his portfolio of arts education consultancy activities. In the last six years he has lectured on four different PGCE and B.Ed courses. As a part-time lecturer in Art and Design Education at one university he delivers the module for students intending to teach in Primary schools and given just 10 hours to prepare them to teach the subject across KS1 and 2 he describes this as the most challenging and rewarding work to date. He is also a specialist schools assessor who runs many INSET courses, some of which illustrate and extend the content of his latest book, The Primary Art and Design Subject Leaders Handbook.
Having served as President of NSEAD, during which he represented the Society on a number of committees, including working groups for QCA, as a steering group committee member of the Royal Fine Arts Commission, and his participation in a design council "think tank", he was awarded a Fellowship of the Society in 2000.
He was also granted Honorary Life Membership of the Association for Advice in Art and Design Education in 2006 having twice acted as National Chairperson. Currently he sits on NSEAD Council as primary education representative. As well as the Primary Handbook his published works include ‘Using Pictures with Children’, ‘Writing a policy and Scheme of work for a Primary School’, an article in Jade entitled ‘Art and Design- the Rhetoric and Practice’, an occasional paper on Inspection published by NSEAD, and ‘Critical studies-the Verbal Dilemma", one of a collection of essays. He was also Lead Writer on the NESTA project which produced guidance for schools and a web site offering advice to teachers in identifying Gifted and Talented pupils and catering for their needs. He also writes the regular ‘Ask the Expert’ column in ‘Start’ the Primary Art and Design magazine answering teachers' queries, and has founded and edits A,n,D, the house magazine for secondary teacher members of NSEAD.
Another project for Cfbt involved developing curriculum material for the Youth Justice Board. As a Scriptwriter/consultant on the Sainsbury Print videotapes for BBC he discussed the paintings of Turner with pupils at Tate Gallery, filmed by BBC, and was Editor/Writer on several BBC schools programmes. As a speaker he has made contributions to many national art education conferences and lectured on the English National Curriculum to an Anglo-Dutch conference in Arnhem.
He is a practising painter in the modernist tradition, with a studio in his house in Yorkshire. His last one man was in Corsham in 2006.