Technology Blog

April 2013

As a new approach to the technology blogs, Alice Franklin and Daria Ostronowska have now joined the department as Learning Consultants for Technology. These two students have gone into lessons so that they can report on what they have seen to add to this blog. Here are their observations for this term:

I observed a year 10 fashion and textiles lesson. In the double lesson the students had to research as much as they could about their chosen theme mainly collecting pictures that could be put into a mood board later. This was a good lesson because the students were given a task, where they could just get on with it and get stuck into, which meant a lot got done in the long time we had. It was a very independent task, but students could share ideas on Pinterest.com which I think worked well.

Alice Franklin 

December 2012

Design technology have had a great term, we have now started the Fashion and textiles GCSE in year 9 and 10 and it has been a great success the students are enjoying every minute of it and already planning their first collections and catwalk show for the spring term. We have just got back from the Clothes show live exhibition and Cadbury world in Birmingham and our students had the most enjoyable days getting to see and feel how it is to be a designer of food and fashion. Students got to meet up and coming designers, models and chocolate designers.

Technology has now started its weekly clubs on a Tuesday after school and these have proven to be very popular. Jewellery club did their first sale at Fusion and sold lots of their hand made pieces to make a great profit. Cooking club and Baby club also have made a great start and are planing a cake sale in the near future.

All in All the design department is going from strength to strength this year and is we are now starting to see some very talented designers emerging.

June 2012

This term has been a great term for design technology. We have started the jewellery club and had a great response to this from the girls and the boys within the academy. We are planning our first sale before the end of term.

Our very talented year 9 students have had a great opportunity to design the trophies, medals and tee shirts for our Olympic sports day which has been sponsored by our enterprise fund. I feel very proud of the designs, so watch this space for some excellent innovative ideas. The winning design will be produced and be worn by staff and given out at the sports day to our talented athletes. This has been a great opportunity for design students as they are working on a live project that will give them a realistic experience of the world of design and manufacture.

I am also very pleased to say that all year 11 students have worked extremely hard this term to complete their coursework to a very high standard and they have sat their exams with confidence and great maturity. We are hoping for the best design technology exam results that Ormiston Academy has achieved in recent years.

Fashion and Textiles will be starting in September 2012, which will add a new dimension to our department that will provide great new learning experiences for all our students. I look forward to the new year ahead and our new updated curriculum.
 

February 2011

Hi Everyone

My name is Mrs Schild and this will be the first of many  blogs  as Curriculum Leader for  Design Technology so hello everyone. I have had a great start meeting everyone, staff and students and feel that there are many talented designers here at Ormiston which is so exciting to see.

I have lots of exciting project up my sleeve for all years and as my specialism is fashion design I am sure you will be seeing a few fashion show in the future. Watch this space if you are a budding model and would like some experience.

Yr 8's are starting a brand new T shirt design project and researching logo design in order to create their own brand and t shirts. Yr 7's are looking at architecture and soon will be building their own cities. Yr 11 are still working very hard to meet their deadlines for their GCSe's which I believe will be a great success this year. Yr 9 BTEC Product design are steaming ahead and are producing some excellent professional pieces and coursework that I know will result in some excellent grades. Next week Food technology are doing a come dine with my talent contest I will be posting photos and results very soon and giving you all the reports on how this went. So all in all its been a good start to the term.

I look forward to working with all the students here at Ormiston academy and making our already exciting Design Technology department forward thinking and up to date.

October 2011

We have several exiting new projects rolling out, and a new dept. logo! The logo, designed by Emma Smith in yr9 will be used on all paperwork and will go up on posters around the dept. to give us a brand identity within the Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy brand.

The year 7s are working with the Black Country Living Museum to design and present a cup cake display to the education team at the BCLM. The year 8s are currently making jewellery from laser cut acrylic plastic, hand cut and polished hardwood and cast pewter designs. We are currently working with the art dept to find out which skills overlap in yr7 and yr8 in both subjects and developing a project based on the work of Jon Burgerman.

The yr9 AQA GCSE graphic product group are about to start a live project, also with the Black Country Museum, and the yr10 GCSE graphics group will follow next term. We are introducing more creative sketching and graphic marker rendering exercises into the course to give the students the ability to produce professional looking design portfolios. The year 11 GCSE graphics group are doing well with their coursework portfolios, and have a mock exam coming up in November. The AQA graphics course is becoming more and more popular with its mixture of artistic skills, design know how and CAD and craft manufacturing skills.

October 2011

We have made some changes to the food technology course to make it more interesting for the year 9. They have started on a BTEC home cooking skills course and a Nutrition and health course. These courses require very little in written work and more practical cooking. The courses are more relevant to your everyday needs.
Year 7 have had a fantastic start in Food technology. They are designing, making and decorating cupcakes suitable for show casing at the Black Country museum.

We have started a cookery club which runs Tuesdays between 3 and 4:15pm. Come on years 7 and 8, come and register so that you can design your own recipes, cook and taste different foods and for a chance to take part in an Ormiston cook off competition in December.

July 2011

This has certainly been a busy and exciting term for the Technology Department. Recently we have worked closely with an Ormiston Technology Consultant who has helped us to review and develop new Key Stage 3 schemes of work and projects. In fact all our projects will be entirely new from September, and these will seek to engage and develop our students’ creativity and expertise in new and exciting ways.

For example, our new Year 7 students will start a 7 week project which is linked to the Black Country Living Museum. They will have the opportunity to design a new product and its packaging with the aim that it will be suitable for sale in the Museum!

The developmental work hasn’t stopped there! In Key Stage 4 work has focused on developing new coursework tasks, and again it is likely some of these will again involve working with the Black Country Living Museum.

Further work has involved planning for our new GCSE Short Course in Design and Technology which 22 of our Y9 students will commence in September. Additionally we are seeking to develop strong links with local industry, who could support our work and that of our students by bringing a greater sense of realism to our project work.

In September we also hope to use the expertise of a practising industrial designer to talk about and demonstrate the skills essential for successful designing.

Watch out for our next blog where we will bring you up to date with all these developments!