Trinity School recently hosted its biggest yet annual Design & Technology (D&T) Week (18-22 June), celebrating and promoting everything to do with design and technology, that saw students from years 7-13 involved as well as staff, parents and the wider community, including Newbury College and local digital design company, Boomerang Creative.

The week kicked off with an FE & HE taster session for year 9 and 10 students with Newbury College, where students took part in an exciting experimental workshop looking at using natural dyes in fabrics, including ingredients such as pomegranate, onion and avocado. Students were able to explore different results with different ingredients and discovered the benefits of using natural dyes rather than chemically produced dyes, particularly with fast fashion items and the impact these can have on the environment. The students also learnt how technical dyeing can be and discovered some of the benefits that natural dyes can have in clothing such as UV protection and anti-bacterial properties.

On Tuesday, Trinity hosted a series of community skills building workshops that saw parents and families of students invited in to take part in something with their child. Trinity has previously won an award for community learning and as a school is always keen to get the wider community involved. Workshops included a digital design master-class using Adobe Photoshop as well as a food based galaxy doughnut making workshop. Places were quickly snapped up and there was a great turn out for both of these workshops, which gave parents and families an opportunity to spend time with their child as well as learn some new skills.

Later in the week, year 8 students were involved in a whole-day STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) activity that focused on problem solving, building resilience, communication, teamwork and creative thinking. Students were tasked with the challenge of creating a balloon-powered car, which saw them experimenting with materials, as well as looking at measuring speeds and understanding forces. Students across years 7 and 8 also took part in smaller STEM challenges in their lessons across the week to promote key skills in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Teaching and support staff across the school were also greatly involved in the week, including our Great Staff Bake Off across two days. Staff worked in teams to try to bake their way to be crowned Bake Off winners, which saw staff producing profiteroles and notoriously difficult éclairs. Year 7 students eagerly watched contestants throughout the competition and cheered them on to try to bake to a win!

On Thursday lunchtime, sixth form students and staff participated in a waiter race on the Astroturf, which saw teams competing to get from one side of the pitch to the other in the quickest time with a tray of food and drink, but – whilst also navigating a tricky obstacle course. With a focus on communication and teamwork, Phoenix house were victorious against some stiff competition from the other competitors.

The main highlight of the week was on Friday, when our first ever Designer in Residence, Boomerang Creative, visited the school to work with some of our talented year 9 and 10 GCSE D&T students. Anna Sampson, creative director at Boomerang Creative, delivered an inspiring workshop on the day-to-day work of a designer, possible paths into design related careers as well as discussing the process that their company goes through when they are set a brief by a client. Students were also lucky enough to hear from Boomerang Creative’s first ever apprentice who shared their experience of taking an apprenticeship route into a design related career, an alternative to going through a university route. Students were also very lucky to be set a live brief by Boomerang Creative to work on over the next couple of months – to produce branding for one of their clients with the possibility of this being used by their client. Our Designer in Residence also officially opened the school’s new Design and Inspiration Library – a new space that will provide students with inspiration and sources of research to use in lessons.

Photo shows Anna Sampson from Boomerang Creative with students opening Trinity’s new Design and Inspiration Library