The sturt school for wood.

**snowgum** · 2nd April 2024, 05:39 PM

This may become a contentious thread, but I think that it's worth while conversation open to many varied views.
I have started this thread because of a previous thread by "rtyuiop" topic "Schools with long courses".

I make comments as a past graduate of the school.

I have attached the following open communication from the Sturt Gallery & Studio.
The Future of Sturt Gallery & Studios Update
This may clear up some of the rumours spreading fast on this forum.

To set the record straight as briefly as I can and to the best of my knowledge.

The Sturt School for Wood operates under the direction of the board of Governors of the Winifred West Schools, which includes Frensham School, Gib Gate School, Sturt School for Wood and Sturt Gallery & Studio. The day to day running of Sturt Wood School was managed by the head of Sturt who answers to the Head of the Frensham School.
The primary function of Winifred West Schools is an independent non-denominational comprehensive single-sex preschool, primary, and secondary day and boarding school for girls. The school was founded in 1913 and Sturt was started in 1941 by the schools founder Winifred West to teach weaving and carpentry to the girls during the WW2 as a community service. The Sturt School for Wood was first established in 1985 to provide a dedicated post secondary craft study of woodworking.

The Sturt School for Wood as recently incarnated has provided a full time one year course in fine furniture making which is the VET accredited course Certificate IV in Furniture Design and Technology for 12 students, plus some short courses over the summer and winter school term breaks.

The VET accreditation allows students to apply for AusStudy and HEX Grants to finance the study.
Prior to 2011 the course was only a craft based study without any recognised qualification other than the prestige of the association with the Frensham/Sturt name.

I believe that the original intention of making the course a VET based accreditation was to open up the institution to more paying student to maintain the viability of providing the course which was struggling to find students and cover costs in the early 2000's.

The enormous fame that Sturt Wood School and it's Graduates receive is fundamental to the function of the world renowned Tutors who have taught at Sturt.
The Wood School only normally employees staff on a part time basis. The staff usually consist of an administrator who is a VET qualified in Cert IV Training and Assessment and holds all the modules of competency being taught in the course, and and shop assistant who assists in the maintenance of the the machinery and such who is normally employed for 3 days a week.
The Tutors are usually employed under contract for periods of a couple of days up to a full term semester.
The Tutors selected are without doubt the finest woodworking teachers available in the world.

The Sturt Gallery and Shop which has provided wonderful craft and art facilities and exhibitions, is at the moment a unviable business which is a parasitic function upon the resources of the Frensham Schools as a whole. The Gallery and Gift shop employees staff who have been fantastic and I hope that some solution can be found going forward.
At the moment Sturt is in the process of re-evaluating its relevance and financial sustainability into the future.
I haven't witnessed any "white anted by management" of staff at this point in time and believe the board has been exceedingly supportive of a very un-viable business model.

I think that the fundamental difficulty that Sturt School for Wood faces today is trying to fit what is basically a craft skill subject into a defined modular unit of assessment competency system. The paradox is trying to fit the metrics of the VET system while maintaining the soul of the craft woodworker.

I further believe that the Sturt School for Wood will require a massive investment in workshop facilities and equipment to remain relevant with worldwide best practices. Currently the income generated by the Wood School and Gallery Shop is insufficient.

I look forward to any other views on this subject.

**royflatmate** · 2nd April 2024, 09:23 PM

Just like to add in addition to the full time students there are part time woodworking students as well that attend Monday and Tuesday in the day and evening.Many of these have been attending for many years.There’s also silversmith and jewellery and pottery and ceramics which was regarded as producing some of the finest potters around.
From the people that I have talked to there is hope with the panel that have been selected to work on the review committee. But whatever they recommend is up to the Frensham board to implement or reject.
I’m sure you will find people who will disagree that the Gallery and shop were a parasitic function. Maybe you mean the commission from the artists work on sale.
Many of us are disappointed the way the whole thing has been handled and that things could have been done in a much better way.
Anyway I have enjoyed my time there and have met many great friends .Next Monday will be a sad day as it’s the last one for us.

cheers Roy

**snowgum** · 2nd April 2024, 10:37 PM

Hi Roy

Outside the primary 12 month full time Cert IV course, Summer and Winter School Courses and occasional project making programs I was unaware of any part time students attending courses on Mondays and Tuesdays mid term when I studied there, thanks for letting know. I would be interested in finding out what course were offered in what years and who were the tutors. If any past students can let me know that would be great thanks.

I do remember Mark Gudggn, Geoff Stubbs, Martin Jones, Stuart Falkner and Peter Young developed some short courses, but I think they were mainly part of the Summer and Winter School program. Maybe recently under Peter Young's tutorage some inlay and veneering courses were also developed. The Summer and Winter School Courses were usually of five day duration. I remember attending with my wife a five day turning course with Richard Raffan as part of the Summer School program, it was fantastic.

In 2017 The Sturt School for Wood, to encourage professional development of graduates, operated a makers space program in the annex building with about 8 of the previous years graduates being involved at the beginning of the year, however the small group very quickly disbanded with most leaving before the completion of the first term and only one of the previous years student remaining to the complete the year. Sturt did not continue the program in the following years as this group placed additional demands on the existing tutors who already had a full academic commitment with the full time Cert IV course, nor was it a viable situation to operate a workshop for only one person.

**AlexS** · 3rd April 2024, 04:44 PM

I was there in 2000. We had only one teacher, Tom Harrington, with some tutorials on design by Lissa Ward, and photography by Megan's husband - sorry, can't remember his name. A couple of years prior to that I did a 5 day summer school run by Dale Dryen.

There were classes run on, I think, only Wednesday nights, and one student from the previous year used the workshop down the hill to the south of our workshop. During the break after our year, the school workshop was enlarged and new machines installed. Sadly, this resulted in the loss of the wall behind the tablesaw operator, autographed by so many of those whose kickbacks had punctured the fibro.

While I have no criticism of the course that I did, it was noticeable that Sturt students over the Tom's years developed the same style, and I think the same thing happened with Allan Wale's students previously. I believe that having multiple teachers during the year has resulted in a greater variety of styles and more versatile students.

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