Twice yearly, our P1s to P7s are involved in technology challenges. These are an excellent opportunity to have our children working together in mixed age groups within their house teams.

The aim is not only to create, but also to develop meta skills through these practical challenges. Adapting, using their initiative, communicating, collaborating and critical thinking are core, as well as the opportunity to develop leadership skills, especially in our Upper Stages pupils.

Challenges can involve paper/card technology, use of circuits or creating moveable parts. To prepare for these challenges, children are given the chance to experiment with the equipment to be used, ahead of the day, during playful learning experiences.  

We endeavour to set the challenges within a theme which links to classroom learning and IDL, and teachers discuss the challenge with them, asking key questions and sparking curiosity as to how each challenge relates to real-life contexts.

The timing of our two challenges allows the children to get to know their team mates during Term 1 and the second, during Term 3, allows them to work together again, often on a trickier challenge. During this later challenge, we invite parents to come along to see the challenge in progress and get stuck in too, if they’d like to!

At the end of each technology challenge, the teams are then given the chance to share their creations with others and reflect on the experience.