After completing the preparation of the backgrounds in the workshop, we went back into school to complete the rest of the task with the children. Before we went into school, we came across the hurdle that our LED lights were not working within the circuit and we had to result in bringing lightbulbs and circuits with us to use. This hurdle before we even got in to school, did not put us as a group in a good position and we did not feel fully confident in what we were completing and producing with the children. When we arrived at the school, one of the year 3 teachers was welcoming of us but the other teacher did not acknowledge us till break time, which did make us feel unwanted in the classroom that particular day.

During the first session within year 3, there was some miscommunication with the teacher, as she did get the children to design characters independently when the task was to complete this in pairs. This meant we had to ensure the children combined these ideas together to produce one character which caused a lot of disruption in the class and did mean we spent more time on the design stage than needed. This then caused a knock on effect to the rest of the day and the time allocated to the second class. When looking around the children within the first class, despite us thinking it was the more able class, their fine motor skills were under developed for a large amount of the children. This meant that the children were quite slow at the making of their characters and the pieces produced were not of high quality due to their ability of cutting material. Also within the first lesson, it was clear we were running tight on time and even though we had explored the light circuits at the start of the lesson, we could not fit it into putting them into the character. We explained this to the teacher and she was not very understanding and we had to put them into the character which meant less time in the second class for us to complete the activity. This has demonstrated to me how much time these types of activities need. As at the start, we anticipated this group would be very quick to finish and we would not have enough activities to complete in the time but we were completely wrong. This therefore shows that despite our thinking, this type of workshop needs to be completed as a whole day activity rather than half a day to get the best opportunities for development out of it.

Even though our group wanted to go into the second class just before lunch break, this was not the case due to the lighting situation that arose in the first class. This meant we adapted the second lesson dramatically compared to what we taught in the first lesson. In my opinion, I do feel the changes we did make worked better for the activities and the work was completed in the allocated time. This therefore shows that reflection and adaptation is crucial to the development of lessons to ensure they fulfil their potential. The teacher in the second class did also help us with the children and was able to push the children along at a quicker rate, whereas the first teacher did not get involved and had personal conversations with her TA. By observing this within the classroom, it is apparent that when completing activities like this in other schools, you should not rely on class teachers for help as they can see it as a time to relax and do other things around their classroom.

Overall, it was very clear that the second lesson was of a higher success compared to the first one and the characters produced were of a higher quality. I feel that this was mainly down to the class teachers assistance and her helping the children before design characters in pairs which lefts us with more time for the making part. From this experience I have gained an insight on class teachers attitudes towards the subject of mainly DT within schools. I have learnt that it is not seen as an highly important subject due to children’s lack of knowledge in the area and the development of their fine motor skills of cutting different types of material. With children being exposed to more subjects, like textiles, they will start to develop these skills which they will use throughout their later life.