Community : Collaborations : CAM CAM In Primaries

Nailsea School in National D&T Week - 26th – 30th June 2006

In conjunction with our Specialist Status collaborations with Partner Primaries, several groups of young students visited our school during National D&T Week to gain experience in the use of our Laser Cutter. Students ranging in age from 8 to 10 had great fun creating a key ring from their own design. Some original and innovative designs were produced.

Staff from the Technology Faculty assisted by our ICT Technicians, were able to offer students from Golden Valley, Kingshill Primary, Grove Junior, Wraxall School, Tickenham Primary and St Francis the opportunity to tour the Technology Faculty, use equipment in the computer rooms and workshops and meet some of the staff.

Not only did these young children, and staff, show great enthusiasm for the project, it was impressive to see how quickly they picked up the industry standard advanced terminology and techniques. All were proud to present their finished articles as shown below.

The primary schools involved have all been working with Nailsea School throughout the last year as part of the Techlink Project. The collaboration has been a great success. Primary Schools have seen their skills develop to the level where they are using Cad Cam software to produce greetings cards and gift stationery as part of an Enterprise Club. Other Schools have reported how quickly the pupils learnt how to draw using Primary Design software making templates from scratch. Most schools are working with older pupils now training younger students in a pairing learning scheme.

Benefits of the project have already been seen with this year’s Y7 showing a significant increase in their graphics results compared with previous years. The project will continue to improve the transition from Y6 to Y7 and aid in particular the areas of Resistant Materials and DT.

Parents of Primary School pupils have all seen evidence of their child’s developing skills as they’ve taken home a selection of cards, boxes, door signs, badges and models. One parent was so impressed he went out and bought a Craft Robo machine for his daughter!