Engineering

I believe that by combining the intellectual, creative, practical and social elements of learning, the engineering process enables the solution of problems from the design stage through modelling to evaluation and refinement.

St Faith’s is pioneering the way forward for Engineering taught at primary level. As a professional Engineer for over a decade before moving into teaching I believe that our bespoke Engineering curriculum offers our children the opportunity to:

  • Work in a team to design practical solutions to problems
  • Draw on their practical skills to construct prototypes and draw on their maths and science knowledge in order to improve the performance of their constructions
  • Harness their creativity and progress their use of workshop machines and hand tools to allow pupils to build their own designs.

Our projects explore all forms of engineering: chemical, mechanical, robotics, structural, civil, electrical and aeronautical.

Just some of our projects across the years include:

  • Year 3 How would you make an electric circuit without using wires? Get your hands messy by making electric dough to manufacture squishy circuits.
  • Year 4 Find out what animals live in your garden and design and build the perfect home for it. Introduction of the Marshalls Cambridge Launchpad scheme.
  • Year 5 Learn about wind turbines with a team of professional engineers from the Cambridge Launchpad and design and build efficient turbine blades.
  • Year 6 Learn about the mechanics of flight and wind power to design and build single line kites.
  • Year 7 Build matchstick rockets that travel over 10 metres using the power of one matchstick head. Understand Newton’s 3rd Law and investigate flight stability through the understanding of the centre of mass and centre of pressure.
  • Year 8 Draw on knowledge of electromagnets to understand how motors work. Problem solve to create objects that move on land and water and in the air.

Nicola Hoyle

Head of Engineering