Pupils from Y2-Y6 have been honing their design skills during their Mead University sessions. First they had to respond to a design brief that told them to design a marionette toy that would relate to a book. Once the children had chosen their focus title, there were a number of points to consider:
- which character would they bring to life?
- what age range were they aiming for?
- how would the different parts of the marionette move?
- what design features would they include?
Over the last seven weeks the children have worked hard to bring their designs close to completion.
Resilience
It has taken a long time to get it finished. Designing it was hard as we had to think about a lot of ideas... but we couldn't use them all.
Abdullah - Year 5
What is Mead University
Mead University is a 10 week programme that runs in the Spring term. The idea is to:
- expose pupils to subjects and activities they would not normally experience
- give them the chance to broaden their vocabulary with subject specific terms (meta language)
- develop an idea to a greater depth - as there are 10 hours given to each course
- allow pupils to work on a subject/course of their choosing
- give pupils the chance to work with children beyond their Year Group
- encourage pupils, at the earliest possible point, to consider further education as a possible root to a future career
Marionettes has been a huge success:
- 100% (87% of pupils strongly) agree that they have enjoyed the course
- 73% agree that they would now consider a career as a designer
