Senior School
The D&T department encourages students to make links with the world beyond the classroom. We want students to see the opportunities for designers and engineers to make a difference to our world and help save the planet.
Open workshops
The D&T Department runs open workshop sessions on Wednesday’s at Castle Campus and Thursday’s at Kings Campus. These sessions are predominantly for GCSE and A Level students who want to have access to the facilities to extend their learning and making skills. They are also available to students from Years 7 – 9 upon request. Please note that we have to limit numbers for Health and Safety reasons.
“Having access to the workshops after school has really helped improve my making skills”
Trips
We enjoy organising trips, such as last year’s visit to the Design Museum. Where students were able to develop their understanding of smart materials in an innovative workshop looking at the various applications this material area has. As well as seeing the main Designer Maker gallery, we also visited the Beazley Designs of the year 2019.
“This exhibition really inspired me to see what is possible in D&T”
Competitions
There are many competitions for design, engineering and STEM. We believe these are invaluable to students.
This Year our Year 7 students all took part in Race to the Line, a national competition, where they worked in teams to develop their own model rocket car. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the school heats and the competition was cancelled for this year due to Covid-19.
This year we introduced the IET Faraday Challenge where 36 of our students competed in teams of 6 to create and model a solution to the following brief “To design a product to support airbus in the work they do around the world helping people in times of need”
Arkwright Engineering Scholarship
The school is very pleased to be able to offer this prestigious national scholarship opportunity to all Year 11 students. Students who are looking to be engineering leaders of the future will benefit hugely from this 2 year programme that includes industry mentors and access to a range of exclusive alumni experiences. But first they must face a rigorous application process that includes an aptitude exam and a formal interview.
Sixth Form
The D&T Department is always open to D&T students when there is a teacher present. We also support students taking part in Young Enterprise and those who want to use the facilities to build an artefact for their EPQ.
“Great facilities, particularly for CAD”
Trips
Our Sixth Form students attended the Product Design in Action Conference and really enjoyed hearing from a range of successful designers and hearing their stories and experiences.
“ I didn’t realise there were so many opportunities for a designer to work across a range of fields”
General
We encourage students to look beyond the classroom and get involved in design and engineering, through various organisations. Here is just a selection of our favourites:
The Design Museum
This museum has a thought-provoking permanent display and many interesting exhibitions, workshops and talks. We also recommend the upcoming Beazley Designs of the Year 2019
https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/future-exhibitions/future-exhibitions-and-displays
Tomorrow’s Engineers
This organisation has many interesting student resources on its website as well as a multitude of careers information about the many engineering fields.
https://www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk/
Smallpeice
Smallpeice promote STEM and engineering. We particularly recommend their Ignition and Momentum courses which you can find out more about through their parent page.
https://www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/
