Kids woodwork in school?
Discussion
dickymint said:
The day I started my apprenticeship (fitter/turner) our instructor gathered us around and said "see all these wonderful machines around you?........... well if you open the right hand cupboard of your workbenches you will find these" he then brandished a file a hacksaw and a sheet of emery cloth saying "these are your friends for the next three months!!!!
I'm about six months in to a new job servicing excavators.My lad has spent much of this summer in the workshop learning about drill presses, lathes, band saws, spanners & hammers etc.
First thing I said to him on day one "Everything in this place is designed to bruise, cut, maim and kill you - this is not a playground do not ever mess around in here - if you are at all unsure about anything you stop and just ask the questions, there's over 150 years of experience in this shop - you are thirteen - you know f**k all - remember that and you'll be fine".
The owner qualified that with "Wise words there - listen to your Dad, and if I ever see you at a machine without eye protection you'll never set foot in here again."
What a heady summer it's been for a thirteen year old who also loves cricket
Safety consciousness is something that just comes with age and experience and anticipation of what could happen. A simple example being putting a 40 ton excavator back on the trailer. Young fella stood to the side watching whilst everyone else is stood to the rear.
Young fella called aside and told in no uncertain terms not to stand along side but at the rear, why? 'I don't know' he said. Because if there is a stone stuck in the tracks and it gets forced out it will like come out sideways which is just towards where you were stood.
Shuvi McTupya said:
Jaguar steve said:
There was a hole in the ceiling of my woodwork classroom from somebody doing the same thing. Apparently the key was still somewhere in the roof void...
They should just make you attach the chuck key to a lanyard that you wear round your neck. You might get one person leaving the chuck key in but nobody would do it after that.
Aluminati said:
I remember woodwork/metalwork and technical drawing being my favourite classes.
My lad made some bits ( 8 years ago) bit as said, using the proper saws etc doesn’t happen.
I learnt gas welding and brazing in metalwork ! Couldn’t see that happening now.
Mine too. I passed two O levels first time around. Woodwork Grade C and Tech Drawing Grade A.My lad made some bits ( 8 years ago) bit as said, using the proper saws etc doesn’t happen.
I learnt gas welding and brazing in metalwork ! Couldn’t see that happening now.
Failed everything else
Wanted to be a Tech Drawing teacher but ended up in Civil Engineering.
Started with T Squares and Drawing Boards and ended up with AutoCad, And various design packages.
At school I made a coffee table, small bookcase, tool cabinet etc
Now at school it does tend to be designing small objects and 3 D printing or bending plastic I think. Son didn't want to do it at third year, a bit of a disappointment at first but he's good at and enjoys other things.
Shuvi McTupya said:
My woodwork teacher hung back and watched me making a very tasty baseball bat/club as a side project over the course of a few weeks and when i had got it just how i wanted it on the lathe he stepped in , switched the lathe on and jammed a chisel into so hard that it split into pieces and the chunks went all over the class room.
"You did a lovely job, but don't make another one. And clean up that mess!"
Funny you should say that -in my school metalwork class I machined up a very nice aluminium 'priest' -ie a cosh to bash fish over the head (mainly trout I'd poached out the local chalk stream!). Teacher threw his toys out his pram, confiscated it and chucked it in the scrap bin from where I retrieved it the next week and 50 years on its still in my tackle box!"You did a lovely job, but don't make another one. And clean up that mess!"
Black_S3 said:
I used to wonder what the point in having most the tools was as no one was allowed to use them. Must have been ... the DT teachers buying toys for their own projects.
There’s a lot of truth in this. One of our teachers had bought a real do-er upper house and openly told anyone that would listen about how he made all new doors, furniture, the staircase, cabinetry, kitchen and windows all using the schools facilities. It was beautiful inside mind when it came up for sale a few years after I left the school.I took woodwork as one of my GCSEs in 2010. Design Technology was split between resistant materials (woodwork), product design (CAD), textiles and cooking.
Can't say I ever felt we were restricted in terms of tools we could use etc, with exception to the band saw after someone did some damage to themselves on it. All other hand and electric tools (including lathes, millers etc) were free game. We built the usual coffee tables, cupboards, picnic benches for the school etc.
In the final few months the school bought some laser cutters/engravers, and some 3D printers, so can only assume that they'd be a lot more commonplace now.
Would be a shame for it to drastically shift away from the more practical stuff because trees have feelings too etc.
Can't say I ever felt we were restricted in terms of tools we could use etc, with exception to the band saw after someone did some damage to themselves on it. All other hand and electric tools (including lathes, millers etc) were free game. We built the usual coffee tables, cupboards, picnic benches for the school etc.
In the final few months the school bought some laser cutters/engravers, and some 3D printers, so can only assume that they'd be a lot more commonplace now.
Would be a shame for it to drastically shift away from the more practical stuff because trees have feelings too etc.
At my school (where I work but not in this dept!) we offer
Product design
DT
Textiles
Food tech
These all come under the umbrella of ‘design technology’.
They do make simple woodworking projects etc. But they are time constrained at ks3 and like all our great creative subjects suffer due to the fact that more time is being constantly allocated to core subjects.
There is also less money allocated so materials have to be bought creatively and carefully. Equipment needs to be checked (HSe) and if it doesn’t work is often not repaired due to the costs.
We are lucky to offer this range, for many schools DT is not even offered.
Product design
DT
Textiles
Food tech
These all come under the umbrella of ‘design technology’.
They do make simple woodworking projects etc. But they are time constrained at ks3 and like all our great creative subjects suffer due to the fact that more time is being constantly allocated to core subjects.
There is also less money allocated so materials have to be bought creatively and carefully. Equipment needs to be checked (HSe) and if it doesn’t work is often not repaired due to the costs.
We are lucky to offer this range, for many schools DT is not even offered.
Edited by Simes205 on Wednesday 28th August 15:39
My son was allowed to use a saw and hammer at school under very close supervision, over the summer he has turned 4 so he should now be allowed a few power tools when he goes back in September, just the sort of school I like. In 1983 at a village primary school we had a project about the weather, and a weather station on the roof of the school that had an abutment around it, the whole class were invited to go on the roof to take part in lessons, no body was forced up the ladder but everyone went up the 15 or so feet to get to the roof to learn something. Puts thinks into prospective now
There is only one GCSE for D and T now (although different exam boards offer a slightly different experience). Food can be taught via GSCE Food preparation and nutrition, which combined elements from GCSE Food Technology and GCSE Food and Nutrition. This happened due to the government wanting to make the subject "more rigorous".
Schools can choose which specialist principles they focus on for part of the exam; usually whatever they were teaching under the old GCSEs.
One can call the modules taught in "Tech" at KS3 anything you like... one of the key things us HODs are figuring out, is exactly what to cover at KS3 to ensure some interest and teach some basic skills alongside the problem solving needed for the new GCSE in 1 hour a week, for half a year.
Schools can choose which specialist principles they focus on for part of the exam; usually whatever they were teaching under the old GCSEs.
One can call the modules taught in "Tech" at KS3 anything you like... one of the key things us HODs are figuring out, is exactly what to cover at KS3 to ensure some interest and teach some basic skills alongside the problem solving needed for the new GCSE in 1 hour a week, for half a year.
honest_delboy said:
Both my CDT teachers had digits or parts of digits missing
Never saw an accident with the kids though
Happy to use power saws, angle grinders and drills nowadays. I worked at a place that had one of those power guillotines though, stuff that for a game of soldiers.
Beginning to think this must have been a requirement of the job as both my woodwork and metalwork teachers were missing parts of fingers.Never saw an accident with the kids though
Happy to use power saws, angle grinders and drills nowadays. I worked at a place that had one of those power guillotines though, stuff that for a game of soldiers.
Also had the obligatory hole in the wall where the chuck key from the lathe had been fired through.
One of my classmates didn’t tuck his tie in and proceed to get it caught in a bench/belt sander resulting in one spectacular face rash, a stern telling off, and luckily no long lasting damage.
Hobzy said:
.... one of the key things us HODs are figuring out, is exactly what to cover at KS3 to ensure some interest and teach some basic skills alongside the problem solving needed for the new GCSE in 1 hour a week, for half a year.
I have the same issue albeit 1 hour a week all year. (HOD Music)Hobzy said:
Students from Year 7 upwards get to use every tool in the shop except the band saw once they have shown they can use it competently; GCSE students can use the BSaw with supervision if they really need to, but most schools RA don't allow it in my experience. By the end of KS3 every student in my school will have used all of them at least twice.
D and T has just gone through a huge change in curriculum, sadly removing a lot of the practical element and focusing much more on understanding Design.
There are separate qualifications for construction skills. DT is under immense pressure in schools at the moment - it has a high cost for small return and the EBACC rules the curriculum. Class sizes in DT are growing, making practical more difficult to manage. Technicians are increasingly hard to persuade management to employ and the style of examination has changed to be more rigorous - IE less designing/practical understanding and more theory.
Every school is different obviously, but if a school is under pressure for results in the core subjects, you can guess where the timetable gets reduced first.
This.D and T has just gone through a huge change in curriculum, sadly removing a lot of the practical element and focusing much more on understanding Design.
There are separate qualifications for construction skills. DT is under immense pressure in schools at the moment - it has a high cost for small return and the EBACC rules the curriculum. Class sizes in DT are growing, making practical more difficult to manage. Technicians are increasingly hard to persuade management to employ and the style of examination has changed to be more rigorous - IE less designing/practical understanding and more theory.
Every school is different obviously, but if a school is under pressure for results in the core subjects, you can guess where the timetable gets reduced first.
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