CRB
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brightspark
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they still do at the school where my brother works as a technician. and they have a foundry and cast aluminium parts from patterns they have made in woodwork and machine them up on the miller or face them on the lathe 
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mr migwire
It's more fun with metal.
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dont do it at my daughters high school, (my old school) its all fafing around with perspex and hot air guns, we used to get metal work, wood work and technical drawing... loved metalwork, was ok at woodwork, hated techy drawing due to the teacher being an ar$e.
mr migwire
It's more fun with metal.
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i think you could be right about that shox dr, with the decline of rosyth dockyard and all the local manufacturing shops shutting down there is no real need for the skills localy. there are a few fab shops and companies using welding gear but nothing on the scale it used to be.
it was using the forge at school that gave me the bug for metalwork and its never left me,
it was using the forge at school that gave me the bug for metalwork and its never left me,
Shox Dr
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All depends on the structure boundary lines. We live 3 miles from Drax Power Station, Next doors works for babbys, got him a work placement. His school said he couldn't go as it was in a different county. I got on the phone and gave them a rite dressing down. They soon allowed him to go. The school doesn't have a metalshop as such it's called Design and technology.
Howden had a full metal work wing, as they were in the same county as Aerospace at Brough
Maker
Most folk just call me; Orange Joe
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My school has a well kitted metalwork shop; 2 Colchester master lathes, milling machine, brazing hearth, pillar drills and a cold saw in the storeroom. In my "resistant materials" (fancy name for D&T) GCSE, we have used that room once, for making rings from copper or aluminium, didn't touch a single machine
. The rest of the time we do woodMDFwork, laser cutting and coursework(20, A3 pages of design criteria, design spec, designs, evaluations
)...
I dunno if what Shox Dr said about tailoring the curriculum bares true here, Suffolk so the local industry is... farming, surely they should have courses in agriculture, machinery maintenance, that kind of thing, but no, there are at least 8 music, art, PE or dance based courses.
. The rest of the time we do )...I dunno if what Shox Dr said about tailoring the curriculum bares true here, Suffolk so the local industry is... farming, surely they should have courses in agriculture, machinery maintenance, that kind of thing, but no, there are at least 8 music, art, PE or dance based courses
.Having worked at a 6th form college for 12 years as a technician i have seen some changes. Woodwork & metalwork were long ago merged into design & technology then the modern term "resistant materials" was coined. Many schools & colleges have suffered the wholesale scrapping of workshops in the name of progress. In many cases this is because accountants rule. In others because the whole system is becoming risk averse, new teachers coming online who have little more practical experience than the kids they will teach. The older technicians with decent knowledge paid peanuts & not valued for their hard won skills.
Its easier to dumb courses down than train young people properly. Now 17 -18 year olds do A level or equivalent courses in engineering with less knowledge or skill than a 13 year old had back in the 70's. There is a perception amongst many people who should know better that practical skills are of no use & something to be ignored.
Its easier to dumb courses down than train young people properly. Now 17 -18 year olds do A level or equivalent courses in engineering with less knowledge or skill than a 13 year old had back in the 70's. There is a perception amongst many people who should know better that practical skills are of no use & something to be ignored.
the snooper
getting older by the day
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the school I went to did a lot, tech drawing, metal work, wood work, motor vehicle studies load of engine's a bsa bantom and all sorts of other stuff, we did welding must have had 8 lathes in there plus drills mills and other machines to long ago to remember what makes they were, we had a tv studio huge hall for music, swimming pool 2 gyms 4 story science block which amongst all the normal stuff taught electronics and pneumatics, most schools seem to have non of this now
Wedg1e
They call me Mr. Bodge-angles
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When I were a lad... up 'ere in Teesside we still had some industry in the late 70s and my school had woodwork, metalwork and Tech Drawing departments. We had a row of lathes, some mills as I recall, a forge hearth, aluminium furnace, woodwork lathes, gas welding gear, proper drawing boards with strings and counterweights etc etc.
My daughter went to the same school about 14 years after I left: the first parents' evening I went to, I got completely lost. All the tech departments had gone, replaced by carpeted rooms filled with rows of computers.
Although I was forced out of the tech subjects at 14 due to numbers (anyone who could write their own name wasn't allowed to do wood or metalwork but instead had to take Spanish, History and Latin) I still don't recall ever seeing anyone use any of the lathes or mills; we did cast some alloy blocks that were turned into nutcrackers and I know one guy turned the gases on to the forge in the wrong order and filled the whole department with black smoke... but nobody ever told me they'd run a tool into the chuck or threaded something backwards 
My daughter went to the same school about 14 years after I left: the first parents' evening I went to, I got completely lost. All the tech departments had gone, replaced by carpeted rooms filled with rows of computers.
Although I was forced out of the tech subjects at 14 due to numbers (anyone who could write their own name wasn't allowed to do wood or metalwork but instead had to take Spanish, History and Latin
) I still don't recall ever seeing anyone use any of the lathes or mills; we did cast some alloy blocks that were turned into nutcrackers and I know one guy turned the gases on to the forge in the wrong order and filled the whole department with black smoke... but nobody ever told me they'd run a tool into the chuck or threaded something backwards
Maker
Most folk just call me; Orange Joe
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There used to be a technician at school who had retired but came back because he loved doing it, why can't all teachers be like that
. He spent all his time working on small metal things by himself whilst we were "developing out initial design ideas", lucky sod
.
50 years ago when I was a young lad we had a "Technical school" down the road from where I lived, which had several machining and wood working departments, those had a full complement of lathes, grinders, oxy/acet welders ect and also a full set of planers, table saws, sanders ect. as well teaching the other core basics such as the social and physical sciences, maths, chemistry, art, geography, social studies and Phys- Ed, Electrical, They also employed tradesmen to take the classes. They taught us how to make basic stuff and use the equipment safely. If you weren't that way inclined, there was the High school which also was down the road a bit and taught the core subjects, as well as subjects such as politics, home economics etc. No need to guess which one I attended.
Fast forward 40 years later, my 3 daughters went to a High school, and talking to them about general life and they seem to have extremely limited knowledge of the world. ie: ask them about electricity and they know that when you flip the power switch, electricity flows to an appliance, they don't know why or how or the difference between DC or AC frequencies etc. They are smart kids in their respective fields with all of them having at least 1 or two Degrees from University. But lacking in the general day to day knowledge and stuff.
I personally think that they missed out on a lot of important, interesting and useful knowledge. As far as I know they don't have "Technical colleges" any more, now most go to High school and then some of them go off to TAFE (Technical and Further Education) at the age of 16 for the machining, electrical, welding subjects etc. or else they get an apprenticeship.
Fast forward 40 years later, my 3 daughters went to a High school, and talking to them about general life and they seem to have extremely limited knowledge of the world. ie: ask them about electricity and they know that when you flip the power switch, electricity flows to an appliance, they don't know why or how or the difference between DC or AC frequencies etc. They are smart kids in their respective fields with all of them having at least 1 or two Degrees from University. But lacking in the general day to day knowledge and stuff.
I personally think that they missed out on a lot of important, interesting and useful knowledge. As far as I know they don't have "Technical colleges" any more, now most go to High school and then some of them go off to TAFE (Technical and Further Education) at the age of 16 for the machining, electrical, welding subjects etc. or else they get an apprenticeship.
cumbriasteve
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1960's and we did metalwork and woodwork, can't remember much about what we made but one item was a centre punch on the lathe, you had to harden it and belt it onto a heavy steel plate and of course it had to retain it's point or you got a bollocking for not listening and following intructions.
Remembering some of the class clowns I went to school with and thinking of them with a lathe is now a scary vision.
Remembering some of the class clowns I went to school with and thinking of them with a lathe is now a scary vision.
I think there is a realisation amongst goverment & the higher echelons of the teaching establishment that abandoning all this may have been a mistake. Trouble is once a workshop has been shut or scrapped the investment to replace it is huge. The momentum caused by decisions made ten years ago is still going so workshops are still going. Or workshops full of good british equipment & tools replaced by far eastern junk because an accountant thinks it sound financial practice!
A classic example of this, 2 years ago I was asked to make an offer on clearing a school workshop. All the machines had been shoved to the end of the workshop & literally walled up. lathe , mill, drills, etc etc, I busted a hole in the studwork poked my digital camera into the black hole & clicked away. The technicians store have been locked up for 16 years & was full of everything a man could wish for, the next room was the same. Boxes of brand new tools still in boxes. Even a large crate full of eclipse tools postmarked 16 years before & never opened. Two dealers had actually quoted charging the school several grand to take all this away, we made them a fair offer & bought it, The lady we were dealing with was so grateful! It took two of us 3 days with a 7.5 tonner to shift it all.
Their new school was built with all new gear provided under a Public private finance deal where its all leased (at a high price)
The other thing today is that now education is compulsory until 18, so many colleges are suddenly offering vocational training courses the college gets paid for bums on seats. Dont ever think they are for teaching people, they are buisnesses. We had more than a few kids who simply did not want to be there & frankly some were a liability in the workshop. But getting shot of them is nigh on impossible. And yet the exam results climb ever higher!
Theres only one way this can be done, less workshop time & lower standards (as long as the results stay up everything is ok.)
A classic example of this, 2 years ago I was asked to make an offer on clearing a school workshop. All the machines had been shoved to the end of the workshop & literally walled up. lathe , mill, drills, etc etc, I busted a hole in the studwork poked my digital camera into the black hole & clicked away. The technicians store have been locked up for 16 years & was full of everything a man could wish for, the next room was the same. Boxes of brand new tools still in boxes. Even a large crate full of eclipse tools postmarked 16 years before & never opened. Two dealers had actually quoted charging the school several grand to take all this away, we made them a fair offer & bought it, The lady we were dealing with was so grateful! It took two of us 3 days with a 7.5 tonner to shift it all.
Their new school was built with all new gear provided under a Public private finance deal where its all leased (at a high price)
The other thing today is that now education is compulsory until 18, so many colleges are suddenly offering vocational training courses the college gets paid for bums on seats. Dont ever think they are for teaching people, they are buisnesses. We had more than a few kids who simply did not want to be there & frankly some were a liability in the workshop. But getting shot of them is nigh on impossible. And yet the exam results climb ever higher!
Theres only one way this can be done, less workshop time & lower standards (as long as the results stay up everything is ok.)
Maker
Most folk just call me; Orange Joe
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A few people (me included) got to go, one day a week, to collage to do a construction course where we learn bricklaying, plastering, P&D and carpentry. We're doing bricklaying at the moment which is quite good and I'm glad I know how, plastering and P&D are CRAP, but carpentry is excellent; there's a huge, really nice workshop full of heavy benches, morticers, table saws and even a 4 head planer! I think as GCSE students we can only use a few of the machines but they've taught us how to hand cut perfect mortice and tennons, use a hand plane properly and cut half lap joints - not especially difficult things to most people, I'm guessing, but it was very fun and we learnt a lot of the basics. I took the course with the intention of being a carpenter but only a few weeks later I was the proud new owner of a tig welder and slowly became less interested in wood and more interested in metal
. The only problem is the way they timetabled it; the normal lessons were timetabled like normal where you have 4 "option" lessons mixed in with your core lessons but because they didn't rearrange our timetable, they just took all lessons out of thursday and didn't put them anywhere else so I miss 2 of 5 english lessons per week, which probably has something to do with the ungraded I got in the last english exam
. 