Pupils enjoyed hours of innovation as they took part in a design and technology day.
Children from reception to year six at Ashwicken Primary School were given a break from the usual classroom setting and instead took on something more hands-on with a teacher’s DT event.
Karen Shrimpton, the Art and DT lead, organised the day with the aim of enhancing the school’s ideas by creating items that could be used in the real world.
Each class was given a different task to complete such as designing a zipline using electronic motors to transport a raw egg a set distance.
Other classes had to build bridges that would hold five vehicles at one time by looking at structures, materials, design sheets and resources.
“It’s based on STEM, which covers Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths,” said Mrs Shrimpton.
“We wanted to pull those key elements from our learning to show how good our children are, what they can do, and what they can produce.”
The teacher said she believed the trial and error side of completing the task is important for the children’s skills.
“We are really promoting hands-on learning,” she added.
“You have to not just do the academic learning - which we do really well - but also allow them to have a clear and open mindset to be innovators and be able to apply themselves to all sorts of real-life situations.
“Doing this with DT days enables them to do something for themselves instead of churning something out of them.
“The pupils can actually problem solve, think for themselves, use good teamwork, have good vocabulary and grounded knowledge.”
Mrs Shrimpton received a lot of positive feedback from the kids, however the praise didn’t stop there, as the school governors who attended said they were really impressed with what the children were doing.
The school hopes to continue to hold this event once a year.
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