Technology Blog
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!
