Background…
Queen Margaret College, one of a cluster of four Wellington 2005-2006 Beacon Practice schools, is a composite (Years 1-13) single-sex decile 10 private girls' school in Wellington City, with a roll of around 650. This unit helps fulfil the college's original Beacon Practice proposal: to build links with businesses and organisations outside the school, giving the students the experience of working for real clients.
The unit was conceived and taught by Beacon Practice teacher Barbara Knight. Barbara's background is in fashion design and technology. After a diploma in these subjects, she worked as a pattern-maker and designer for a Wellington leather company, then decided to enter the teaching profession. She did a postgraduate year at Teachers College in 1997 and then spent five years in the technology department at Kapiti College. She joined Queen Margaret College as Materials Technology teacher in 2003, and was made Head of Department at the beginning of 2005.
The unit was the second of three projects planned for the 24 students in the Year 11 class:
- A 12-week carrier project for a client other than themselves, where most students make a form of bag and learn about pattern making, basic sewing skills and functionality of design.
- The 12-week Souvenir Design unit, assessed against Achievement Standards: 1.2 AS90046 and 1.5 AS90049, to be made for a client connected to an outside business or organisation.
- A fashion-based ‘special occasion’ project in which most students make an object for themselves or somebody close.
However, in 2005, the Te Papa unit grew beyond its initial planned scope, and subsumed the third unit.
