Abbey Hill School Technology College Craft Design Technology in local Primary schools

As part of our Specialist College Trust work I have been working in some local primary schools teaching CDT to groups of students. I had purchased four sets of tools and storage units. I made some trolleys with divisions to sort out the timber I supplied and some notes to help. I have also been videoed making a buggy and when this has been edited and burned onto some DVDs they will be sent to the school I have supplied with equipment. The schools I have supplied are Harrow Gate Lane Primary School, St Paul’s RC Primary School, Hardwick Primary School and Westlands School. In due course I will visit them all and teach three or four lessons of CDT.

As a father myself I can remember playing with my own children when they were small. In the intervening years they have shot up and I now look up to my son. Going into a primary school was strange for me as a secondary school teacher as the students were so small and the chairs…… All in all I have had a great time and enjoyed the enthusiasm of the students working in my favourite subject.

In St Paul’s RC School Billingham I worked with students in years 5&6 with class teacher Clare Hall and had a wonderful time making our buggies. I demonstrated the various techniques to the students who then had a go themselves and enjoyed using cordless drills, glue guns and tenon saws to make theirs. We rolled the buggies down a ramp and had a class competition to see whose went the furthest, aided and abetted by yelling and cheering. Then we added an elastic band and powered the buggies across the classroom. It was fun to see the delight in the students faces as they sent they work under benches to their friends, who then sent them back again. Next to be added was a mast and sail and the students spent a while drawing a picture and colouring it for decoration. These were to be tested on a dry breezy day, when sadly I would not be there. Lastly we added an electric motor and a battery pack. I had used up my allotted time by now and had to leave the final work to Clare Hall, who now has a lovely display of buggies in the classroom.

Hardwick Schools Miss Rigg’s class of year 3 students were lovely. I was assisted by their Deputy Head Clare Hart who can wield a glue gun with the best of them and Tom Ramsey, a parent who came in twice, and was a great help. The lessons were very much like those I taught in St Paul’s but lack of time stopped us progressing any further than the mast and sail and even worse it was calm on the day we finished them. It’s a bit like making a kite and rushing outside to try it out and finding that there is no wind, usually for days. There is something refreshing about working with younger children as they are so energetic and enjoy simple things. There are also hoards of them and twenty odd in one classroom seems very crowded, accustomed as I am to groups capped at fifteen. The students tried really hard and remembered the names of the tools and materials very well.

I am due to go on to Harrow Gate Lane Primary School in the near future and I will continue this report as I go on.

Ref Richard Murray Sunday 7 May 2006