Woodwork
Here at St. Clare’s we always strive to provide our students an interesting and varied curriculum, which allows each student to show or discover their strengths. In that respect, we are thrilled to be able to offer woodwork classes to our senior students. In woodwork students learn to design small projects and the skills required to use tools or equipment to make their designs. They work mainly with wood but also with other materials.
Some of the things students learn include:
- how to design and plan a project of interest
- how to use the internet, books or images for research purposes
- how to prepare a design drawing or plan of a project you design
- how to label design drawings and make small projects from these drawings
- how to safely use a range of hand and power tools in producing your design.
Practical Class Demonstrations are carried out to show students specific marking out and processing procedures. Equipment used may include blackboard, models and data-projector One-to-one support take place at a student’s own desk and may help the student to understand the relevant steps with more clarity. Discussions are used to explore a topic. This allows students to express their views/opinions and to learn by listening to others. Collaborating allows the students to talk amongst each other and develop their social skills. This allows students the opportunity to develop friendships and work as a team.
Gardening
Our school garden provides our learners another fantastic opportunity to develop life skills outside of the classroom. Many learners enjoy spending time working in the garden, caring for our beautiful array of plants. This work helps to foster a sense of community involvement and allows students to take roles of responsibility in the school community.
The garden and sensory walk has a number of plants and decorations. The children enjoy making items for the garden for others to enjoy. They also get to pick some apples in the autumn to use in their cooking classes.
Our polytunnel allows students an opportunity to explore the growth of a plant from seed to fruition. Classes begin sowing seeds in their own classrooms and watching the transformation as the seed germinates. Then they get to go out and transfer their plant into the polytunnel. The children are given roles of responsibility such as weeding, watering and brushing. We even get to eat some of the plants which we grow and use them in our cooking classes!
Cooking
Our fully equipped kitchen is always a treat for the students to use. Cooking classes allow our learners to develop a greater sense of independence. They learn about hygiene when cooking, safety rules, methods and so much more.
So many amazingly tasty treats come out of the kitchen and we always enjoy seeing students taking such pride in the creations which they have made.
Whether it is a snack, savoury meal or a sweet treat, we can do it together here at St.Clare’s.
…..and so much more!