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DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
Art, D&T and Textiles Trip to London
Over February half term Art, Design & Technology and Textiles students from Years 10-12 took a trip to London to extend their learning beyond the classroom. There were a wide range of visits catering to the interests of all. Design & Technology students visited a net zero carbon commercial development site in central London, where they got to meet, and hear talks from, architects, engineers and design project managers who are all working on the project. This was a fascinating insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes in the development of multi-million pound architectural engineering projects. They also visited Tower Bridge to take a walk along its glass floored walkways and gain an insight into the history of this iconic London landmark, including its design and construction and the incredible engineering that enables the bridge to open for river traffic along the Thames. They visited the Science Museum to view displays on material and technological developments through the ages, as well as marvel at the exhibition on the history of human flight. The Art students had a wonderful time visiting the Natural History Museum, The National Gallery, The Saatchi Gallery and the V&A. Our students produced some amazing live sketches of work that inspired them and took first hand observations from the museums ready for development back in the classroom. The Textiles students sought inspiration for their own work from their visits to Savile Row, The Tate Modern, The V&A Museum and Oxford Street.
As well as taking in their separate sites of London, students came together to see the incredible sights from the top of the London Eye and enjoy a trip to the Adelphi Theatre to watch ‘Back to the Future the Musical’!
Mr Carlin - Head of Design & Technology
When Years 10-12 Art, Design & Technology and Textiles students paid a visit to London to experience the arts live through the creative sides of London, I asked them to tell me a little bit about what it was like...
Would you recommend this trip?
“Yes I would definitely recommend it. It was one of the best trips I have been on, if not the best trip of my entire school life because it definitely helped my A-level course while I also got to have fun especially when watching ‘Back to the Future the Musical’ which I absolutely loved. It was eye opening and an unmissable experience.”
Did you have any favourite pieces of artwork?
“I really enjoyed seeing the more famous pieces such as Van Gogh’s sunflowers and seeing a wide variety of artwork. The displays in the V&A Museum gave me lots of ideas for using old fashioned clothing styles in my designs.”
How did the trip help you in your course?
“The museums were very helpful because there was lots of inspiration that I have put into my work. It has made me a lot more passionate about textiles as a whole.”
First Lego League Challenge
A team of Year 8 and 9 students travelled to De Montfort University, Leicester on 26th January to compete against fifteen other schools in the First Lego League Challenge. After delivering presentations on their adherence to the scheme’s core values, their innovation project and the robot design, the students perfected their robot’s performance, sorting out issues to come up with the best solutions which would give the greatest reward – most points in the robot game.
On Wednesday 26th January, my teammates and I participated in our First Lego League Challenge. We had spent three months preparing, researching and practising to achieve our final outcome. Upon arriving, we were allocated a table and received a schedule. We rushed to the lego tables to try and get one so we could practise and perfect the performance of our robot - it was a frenzy. After about half an hour we were called into the judges’ room to present our core values, innovation project and robot design presentations. It was very nerve-racking but we powered through and by the end we were quickly racing through all the questions they were asking us. Upon finishing, we felt much more confident in ourselves. We went back to perfecting our robot performances and after a while we had worked up quite an appetite.
Shortly after lunch we weren’t allowed to practise on the boards anymore - now it was time to show our robot game and we were up first! We allocated four people who would switch in and out of the board and execute the tasks to the greatest extent possible, the rest of us stood back and cheered them on, supporting them no matter what. After we had our first game, we felt much more confident in ourselves, however there were a few issues so while waiting for the next game to commence, we sorted out our issues and came up with the best solutions which would reward us the greatest. We cheered on our opponents and wished them the best of luck. After this we had two more tries to show our robot game. In the last game, we encountered a few hiccups our robot didn’t perform some tasks; however Eleanora used her quick-thinking skills and stepped in. She realised we had enough time left to try the new missions our robot failed to complete so she restarted the robot and this gave us a real advantage.
Finally, most of the stressful parts of the day were over, now we just had to wait for the awards ceremony to start. The awards that were up for grabs were: most points in robot game, best robot design, innovation project, core values, judges award and finally the overall winner. We sat waiting, excited to see who won and hoping we were up there. Finally the award for the most points in the robot game came around and …we won it! We were pumped with glee! We collected our lego trophy and even got medals. We were so proud of ourselves. I would totally recommend for people to do this as it was a really rewarding experience which was amazing and made even better because we got to do it with our friends and spend time together.
