Pupils in Year 5 Art Club have had a great time designing clocks. The project was facilitated by Mr Kirk, Head of Design and Technology at the Senior School. Their brief, as product designers, was to design and make a clock which captured the style of Alessi. After researching Alessi and analysing a variety of their products, the children created a mood board to capture their inspiration and ideas. They found out about different polymers, namely thermoplastics and thermosetting plastics and analysed their properties to support their clock being made from acrylic.

Creating detailed design specifications by identifying their target user, focused their clock design ideas and well annotated designs were drawn. No time was wasted getting to grips with Inkscape to draw their three dimensional design ready for the laser cutter. It was a fantastic time to learn something new and reinforce the importance of researching and planning designs with attention to detail, aesthetics and function.

An afternoon at the Design and Technology Workshop with Mr Kirk, introduced the children to a world of wonderful machinery and tools, including the laser cutter! They watched in wonder as their clock designs magically appeared in the laser cutter. Finally, the hands were set and the designers held their product proudly!

A massive thank you to Mr Kirk for sharing his time to nurture Design and Technology!