Steve Jeffares and Brenda Whycherley inspire confidence in their students by offering a broad programme.
A broad technology programme for year 7–8
Transcript
Steve Jeffares: We offer a very broad programme in our technology centre. We have six disciplines we offer; our wood, metal, textiles, food, biotech, and electronics. In the wood programme we try and cover some furniture, and some form of a box or receptacle, some form of chest, so they get exposure to different types of wood construction.
We try to cover different skills in each year, in each discipline, so if in year 7 we are using dowel joints we won’t use that in year 8. In metal we make sure they cover spot welding and folding, riveting, and working with light sheet metals. We weave a lot of our science and food tech alongside traditional skills, as well as hospitality and food presentation.
In biotech we make sure they’re working with living organisms within the food department again and using yeasts and ginger beer. Those sorts of things, to make sure they are working with living organisms.
In electronics, we set the bar very high in electronics, students in year 8 will all make an amplifier for their iPhone, something that is advanced but we find that students adapt very quickly to really technically demanding skills. They learn their parallel and their main mathematical cutting processes in textiles.
Brenda Whycherley: So we try and make an article of clothing every second year, and so this year we made t-shirts, and made a logo up on the laptop, and printed a vinyl sticker which they heat pressed onto their t-shirts.
Steve Jeffares: We make sure that everything is ready to go when the students arrive, and there is no down time. Our first aspiration is to lift these kids up in their confidence.
Walking into a room full of tools and machinery, we make sure that across any programme they use as many tools and processes we can get them to use, so that they are not afraid of trying those different things out and so that when they enter secondary school they’ve had experience across six disciplines and all of the tools and processes associated with those disciplines.
Related videos
High expectations in years 7–8 technology (03:57)
Steve Jeffares shares how he inspires students to develop a love of learning.
Building relationships with students visiting a technology centre (03:05)
Steve Jeffares and Brenda Whycherley show that building strong relationships develops confidence for their students.
A school-wide vision for technology teaching and spaces (03:53)
Jude Black of Green Bay Primary prompts us to consider how technology is incorporated into our school vision.
A principal supports technology local curriculum implementation at primary (03:02)
Jude Black describes how her sabbatical changed her thinking and leadership style and inspired her to share her knowledge....
Food technology and science (03:47)
Brenda Whycherley and Vanessa Austin of Edgecumbe College approach food technology and science with a holistic view.
Technology and science work well together (04:39)
Steve Jeffares and Ronnie McHale share how their students deepen conceptual understandings through integrating multiple knowledge bases.
Planning for technology at primary (03:59)
Jude Black and Diana Comp describe their approach to planning at Green Bay Primary.