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Technotes

Autumn Term - October 2002

Welcome to this edition of Technotes Two. A calendar listing events is also available on the website.

In the future we would like to feature exemplar D&T projects from any key stage – please let us know if you have work that you would like to celebrate with the D&T community.

David Allen - County Adviser D&T
Email: david.allen@hertscc.gov.uk
Jenny Elms – Adviser D&T
Email: jenny.elms@hertscc.gov.uk
Eva Final – Administration D&T
Email: eva.final@hertscc.gov.uk

Design and Technology Week 24 – 28 June 2002

Hertfordshire Design and Technology Week Activities
All Hertfordshire Schools were invited to join us in celebrating Design and Technology week. A variety of events were held at Wheathampstead Development Centre and Key Stage 2 Food Technology at a John F Kennedy School, for children and young people in all key stages. Design and Technology work from Foundation and Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 4 were on display in the main conference hall during the week providing the opportunity for the pupils, staff and visitors to view the excellent work that has been undertaken throughout the year.

View the programme of events and a review which includes photographs from the weeks activities. We were very pleased to be overwhelmed with applications for the week and therefore will be running an expanded programme for D&T week 2003. Watch the web site for information.

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Design and Technology Challenges

There are a number of exciting challenges available for pupils this year. These include Wood by Design, The Crime Prevention Challenge and the Food Chain Challenge. Detailed information on all the challenges has been sent to all schools and details can be accessed on the web site via this page: www.thegrid.org.uk/dtchallenge

Following the successful pilot last summer of the Land Rover Challenge, we will be offering the opportunity for potential A level students to take part next summer, further details to follow.

Crime Prevention Challenge

The last day of D&T week was the culmination of the Hertfordshire Crime Prevention Challenge. The challenge was designed to support GCSE within Design and Technology and also give the opportunity for pupils to gain a Crest Award.

This was a joint challenge with Hertfordshire Constabulary and The Welwyn Hatfield Crime Prevention Panel. The winners were presented with a cheque and a commemorative trophy. Some very innovative projects were put forward for assessment and a very high standard of work was praised by the assessment panel. Overall winner was Russell Bird from Francis Bacon School in St Albans.

Food Chain Challenge

In conjunction with Hertfordshire Education Business Partnership (HEBP) and J Sainsbury plc we are delighted to offer the opportunity for 10 pilot schools to take part in a ‘Food Technology Challenge’. The programme will provide a unique opportunity for teachers to undertake professional development that will be related to the food industry. This will involve teachers in five days professional experience that will include a session with the lead business partner J Sainsbury in their development kitchen. In addition further days will be organised and co-ordinated by Hertfordshire EBP.

In addition to the teacher training element a food technology design brief will be set for the teacher involved to implement with year 10 students. It is envisaged that this brief will enable the teacher to put newly acquired knowledge into practice and support the student’s GCSE coursework. The brief will be designed in consultation with the lead business partner and a representative teacher.

An information evening is being offered on TUESDAY 15 OCTOBER at 4pm at Wheathampstead Development Centre.

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Technology Enhancement Project

The partnership between T.E.P. and Hertfordshire has provided all Middle, Secondary and Special schools with key stage three and four provision with automatic T.E.P. membership. All schools are being eligible for up to 10 free days INSET over a two-year period. Schools can also take advantage of 10% discount off other courses offered by TEP and 5% off the cost of resources ordered from their catalogue. A flyer has been sent to all school outlining the courses.

Schools attending will leave with a pack of TEP resources.

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Health and Safety

A new manual for secondary school Design and Technology departments will be made available to all schools later this term. It provides a comprehensive overview of Health and Safety issues and details the requirements for accreditation to the DATA/TTA Health and Safety Standards.

Primary schools have all received a copy of the new Safety Guidelines for Foundation, Key Stage 1& 2 Design and Technology.

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Taste of Success

All Saints School Datchworth celebrated success last in becoming the first primary school in the country to receive certificates for the Sainbury’s Taste of Success Primary Food Awards. Inspired by teacher Rachel Bartlett the children in Year 1 and Year 3 carried out tasks and produced some exciting food products.

All the children received certificates recognising their success, which were presented by Roy Ballam, senior education officer from the British Nutrition Foundation.

Pupils at Lakeside School in Welwyn Garden City also undertook tasks from the award scheme and enjoyed eating the outcomes of their hard work! Roy presented the pupils with their certificates at a school assembly. Teacher Tanis Lang said they had all enjoyed the work and it was an excellent way of celebrating success with the pupils.

For further details see:

• www.j-sainsbury.co.uk

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EMTEX visit

East Midlands Textiles Limited (formerly NADCAT) have opened a new educational resource centre at Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. The EMTEX team relocated to the centre in April and now offers teacher workshops, CAD training and bureau work for textiles manufacturers throughout the UK. The centre hosts state of the art CAD/CAM equipment used in industry, along with a manufacturing unit that enables teachers and pupils to make textiles products on the latest industrial machinery.

I have booked a ‘hands on’ day for 15 Hertfordshire teachers on: THURSDAY 31^ST OCTOBER 2002.

The day will include a session working in the manufacturing suite together with experience in the CAD studio and the opportunity to investigate smart textiles. The cost of the session will be £83 (£94 £110), this includes transport from Wheathampstead Development Centre to EMTEX, lunch and all training.

If you are interested in the visit please apply on the SIAS course booking form.
For further information please contact Eva in the D&T office or Email: jenny.elms@hertscc.gov.uk

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Exam Success

Hitchin Girls School notched up two excellent results in GCSE Food Technology this year. The students received a letter from the examining board to inform them that they were in the top five out of many thousands of entries. Congratulations to the students for all their hard work and to teacher Diane Turner. See the D&T web site.

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News Bytes

• Designers in Schools that took place during D&T week in June was a great success, if any schools that took part would like to showcase their work please let us know.
  For further details see:

  • www.designcouncil.star.co.uk

• FREE resource – do you need some metal for a project?
  If so contact Education Workshops in Hatfield, there is a range of metal available for collection.

• A calendar of D&T events is available – will be available at all quadrant meetings this term.

• An excellent resource to support ‘smart textiles’ is available called Textile Innovation traditional, modern and smart textiles by Ros Hibbert (ISBN 0 954011007)
  Email: textile.innovation@btinternet.com

• In the wake of the two previous publications, Biotechnology and its application to food and Understanding Smart Foods, the British Nutrition Foundation, in collaboration with DATA, is currently writing a new guide about Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) with food technology. The 12-page full colour document will follow the same easy to understand style and approach, using school and industrial case studies to illustrate key points. The publication will be launched at the Design and Technology with ICT Show in Birmingham next month.

• A-level Food Technology Conference - Saturday 12th October 2002
  Imperial College, South Kensington Campus, London

A reminder to all GCSE/A-level teachers, the BNF is hosting this exciting A-level Food Technology conference, in association with DATA. The cost of this one-day conference, including refreshments, lunch and delegate notes is £20 for teachers and £10 for sixth-form students (students must be accompanied by their teacher).

Please contact Stacey Walklate at the Foundation to reserve places, Tel: 020 7404 6504

• The BNF has launched its latest briefing paper, Nutrition Labelling and Health Claims, which gives an up-date of legislation and guidance in the UK, making comparisons with health claims from around the world. There are also great offers on existing briefing papers. See:

  • www.nutrition.org.uk

• New web broadcasts to watch out for:
  Dyson 2 ( 4^th December 02)
  Millennium Bridge (6^th November)
  and planned for March food production with Marks and Spencer
  Sign up on line

• Conference dates:
  Special Schools D&T Conference Friday 6^th June 2003
  Primary D&T Conference Thursday 12^th June 2003
  2 Day Residential Secondary D&T Conference October 2003

• This years GCSE Design and Technology Examination results show another year of improvement. The overall results for GCSE Design and Technology across England, Wales and Northern Ireland indicate a further improvement on the 2001 results.
  
  The following statistics are calculated using those published in The Times on 22 August 2002 and remain to be ratified later this year in the DfES Statistical First Release.
  
  Figures indicate an overall 1.9% increase in grades A*-C, with a 0.2% increase in the number of candidates achieving A*-F. Entry for the subject appears to have fallen by 1.2%. however, 57.9% of this years GCSE entry achieved A*-C overall. 53.1% of the design and technology entry achieved A*-C.
  Total entry for 2002: 433594 (436963)
  

• If you would like to obtain a copy of Pro/DESKTOP, ArtCAM or SpeedStep in your school, you will first need to locate your local Accredited Trainer in the software of your choice. The CAD/CAM in Schools Initiative has a designated web site. The 'Contact' section provides an option to locate your local trainer. Select this option to bring up a location map of the UK showing which trainers are available in your area for which software package. Once you have arranged training with a trainer, they will they register you with DATA for receipt of the software.
  
  For full details of the CAD/CAM in Schools Initiative visit: www.cadinschools.org

• The Food Technology website is a site for students and teachers supported by online analytical tools, direct links with professionals from the food industry and other websites. Case studies are supported by video clips of illustrative activities in industry and in the classroom. The study in one module illustrates the unit operations in Food Manufacture.
  
  Visit the Food Technology website:

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