Our Textiles CURRICULUM

We have high expectation of all pupils in terms of their behaviour and engagement. In Textiles our curriculum that creates life skills that our pupils can apply beyond the subjects from sewing on a button to safely using an iron. We enable pupils to engage with their creativity and enables them to creatively problem solve through using open project briefs. We embrace error and work actively to remove the fear of failure by locating it within the creative process.

Our curriculum offers pupils at Key Stage 3 the opportunity to develop to their skills sets, knowledge of artists and designers and the building blocks of the creative process from initial ideas to sampling to creating a final product. Pupils experience success in Textiles and are proud of what they accomplish at the end of each project. Key Stage 3 Textiles ensures that pupils have the skills and knowledge to create success at Key Stage 4.

At Key Stage 4 we really develop our pupils creative thought processes to enable them to think more deeply and independently about their individual responses to project briefs. We build on their skills set and teach specific techniques and construction that they can use. We expand their knowledge of designers and textilesists from the historic and contemporary eras to enable them to be inspired and influenced by the work of great creators.

Coopers Values: Trust, RESPECT, AND RESILIENCE

In Textiles we develop Trust by: 

• we use strong routines to ensure that pupils understand the health and safety requirements of working with equipment and can trust in their own skills and those of others so that they are all safe.
• Pupils work together in trust so that they complete tasks in pairs or small groups and develop their character skills such as responsibility and reliability.

In Textiles we develop respect by: 

• we encourage pupils to have their own opinions of their own work and that of their peers.
• Disagreement and constructive criticism is encouraged so that pupils understand that it is healthy to have different viewpoints but that this must be respectful.

In Textiles we develop resilience by:

• we build a positive culture of error so that pupils understand that this is ptextiles of the design process. Making products that are flawed or not as good as they would like offers the opportunity to make further improvements.
• We encourage our pupils to keep trying to learn new skills that can be tricky but mastered and become fluent with practice.
• We use key process to embed this such as sampling so that pupils can use trial and error learning to understand how their ideas can be improved to create their high quality product.

WHOLE SCHOOL INTENT: INCLUSIVE

In Textiles we ensure our curriculum is inclusive by: 

• our pupils often start with a limited knowledge of the textiles curriculum and we actively work with each student to develop their skills by gradually building up their knowledge and application.
• Pupils are scaffolded by the teacher and expected to master a technique so that they can create their work independently.
• We stretch our pupils through our ambitious projects that achieve high quality outcomes.
• We challenge them to acquire physical and academic skills and knowledge.
• We ensure that our curriculum reflects our wider British society use designers from diverse backgrounds to inspire our young people.
• We actively challenge the stereotypes that exist around textiles and fashion in order to ensure that our subject is open and accessible to all pupils.

WHOLE SCHOOL INTENT: FOCUSED

The foundation knowledge is procedural skills based which we develop throughout Key stage 3 and use this as the basis for then developing pupils creative thinking skills.

Lessons focus on developing the building block procedural skills first and then develop their thinking through each stage of the design process. The most powerful knowledge is the pupils understanding of the design process so that they are inspired and influenced by key designers in order to stimulate their own creativity.

We share this with pupils and their families using Knowledge Organisers. These are valuable tools for revision and retrieval practice

WHOLE SCHOOL INTENT: SEQUENCED

As the building blocks are procedural skills the curriculum is spiralised so that their skills are learnt and then developed throughout the key stages moving from mastery to fluency. For example in Year 7 pupils learn basic hand sewing, threading up a sewing machine and it’s functions and applying this through straight lines and simple patch working; this is then built on Year 8 they learn how to problems solve issues with a sewing machine and work independently which is then applied through more complex techniques such as applique, joining fabrics and completing a product with a high quality finish. In Year 9 students confidence has grown so that they work independently and complete an open project brief that gives them the scope and creativity in designing a completing a product and how they choose to apply their skills and learning from the previous years

WHOLE SCHOOL INTENT: COHERENT

In Textiles we ensure our curriculum is coherent using 5 Big Ideas that underpin all the learning in our subject. Each lesson is linked to a Big Idea, shared with the pupils at the start of the lesson, so they can call on prior learning and understand where each lesson fits within our curriculum. 

KS4 QUALIFICATIONS

AQA GCSE Art: Textile Design