When schools taught metalworking.

[Migmac]

My kids get a token amount of metal work at school. Which I find strange if they tailor what they get at school by what jobs may be available when they leave. We have a wind turbine manufacturer in the area that is growing all the time and a few smaller businesses that require skills in metal working.

 

[normspanners]

One of my nephews just left his school where they have a fully equipped metal work room, which never opens, due to the domestic science ( or whatever it is called now, non resistant materials.?? ) teacher leaving and the only other qualified teacher to do the domestic bit was the engineering guy so the mech eng went out the window !!

 

[CRB]

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.

?Related? Probably.

 

[Rocketman]

There are two things here that many forget.

There was a time when a lot of teachers had been in real employment in industry those days are largely gone and many have only ever been teachers - bit like politician's they love to complain about having only been career politician's - kind of ironic isn't it. So the skill's for this aren't even in the teaching sector by and large anymore.

Secondly basically as soon as a child goes near a machine, sharp tools the potential for a huge claim against the school goes through the roof in this modern age of claims. So who can blame the schools for not letting the kids near them.

 

[zzr1200]

Its not all doom and gloom there maybe a glimmer of light just, next year my son (who will be moving into year 10) is hopefully changing schools, to an Engineering Business Based Academy a new concept in Engineering Schooling. It operates on business hours and expectations, so prepares the pupil for the business environment.

We went to an open day a few weeks ago the school has access to some amazing workshops and equipment.

Elutec is funded/supported by the likes of British Gas, Ford's, Network Rail and University College London.

There are other Engineering Academy's around the country so if your lucky you might be able to enroll your kids into one if they're interested, there are links to other academy's on this web you just have to poke about to find them...

All hope is not lost yet...

 

[Robotstar5]

At my school, boys did woodwork and girls did Home Economics (cookery) at bit un-PC by todays standards.

Funny story about the woodwork class, about a dozen of us did it to 'O' level, we all passed with A's & B's apart from one lad who got an F (fail), guess who became a chippy for the council?

 

[brightspark]

our woodwork teacher was called mr beaver u couldnt make it up

 

[Paul.]

our woodwork teacher was called mr beaver u couldnt make it up

One of our woodwork teachers was called Staves, for those that don't know, a stave is one of those strips of wood that barrels are made from.

 

[Keith 66]

We had a Maths teacher whose surname was Munt, poor sod!

 

[brightspark]

We had a Maths teacher whose surname was Munt, poor sod!

poor munt

 

[premmington]

I am 48 years old. We had metalwork lessons at school. Sand casting alloy! Lathes and milling machines. Gas welding and cutting!

But a few months ago, I was in my car repair workshop hacksawing a bolt down to length in a vice. When a familiar voice barked out "use the full length of the blade, you would'nt eat your dinner with just your front teeth". When I looked round. There stood Mr Bennett, my old metal work teacher. 81 years old. I programmed him a spare proximity key for his Nissan Micra. He had a brew and a real good look around the workshop. I really enjoyed the chat with him.

When he left, I was thinking... Maybe I should have asked him how to sharpen a drill correctly! It must have been 35 years ago when he showed me how to do it. I can't have been listening at the time. Thousands of failed attempts later and I still can't do it!

 

[Maker]

We had a Maths teacher whose surname was Munt, poor sod!

All the teachers at my school have initials made from the first letter of their first name and the first two letters of their second name. Sara Hill wasn't amused when someone scratched a "T" after her initials on the door
We also have a a maths teacher called Mr Cummings.

 

[Wedg1e]

The Head at my junior school (71-75) was a Mr Laffey; poor sod was as bald as a coot and rejoiced in the bizarre nickname of Pan Shiner.

Head of Lower School at my comprehensive was the shouty 'Eggy' Plummer - though in my 5 years there I never found out the origin of the Eggy bit. EDIT: Bizarre! I just typed Eggy Plummer into Google and a school reunion site (for another school I was at in the late 60s) turned up a post from someone who says Plummers initials were E.G.G. Plummer! What's the chances...

Also two of the teachers, one of whom taught me English, were found guilty in later years of, shall we say, 'offences against minors'.

 

[Maker]

Also two of the teachers, one of whom taught me English, were found guilty in later years of, shall we say, 'offences against minors'.

They call it "abusing a position of trust" - according to Wikipedia, there was a maths teacher at out school who went to prison for that.

 

[Keith 66]

We had a Technician in the woodwork shop who had worked at BSA's during the war, he bought in a set of working drawings to show us for a Sten gun, unfortunately he wouldnt let us build one!
The Technician at Falmouth Technical College Sam used to sharpen the 18" planer knives & strop the razor sharp blades on the palm of his hand. He also had several fingers missing (courtesy of a bandsaw when a young man).

 

[Paul.]

We had a Technician in the woodwork shop who had worked at BSA's during the war, he bought in a set of working drawings to show us for a Sten gun, unfortunately he wouldnt let us build one!
The Technician at Falmouth Technical College Sam used to sharpen the 18" planer knives & strop the razor sharp blades on the palm of his hand. He also had several fingers missing (courtesy of a bandsaw when a young man).

We were taught to strop plane irons in the palm of our hands, a habit I still have, our tech drawing teacher also taught metalwork, in our final year under his guidance we made a crossbow, a joint project by the class where everyone got a part to make, the test firing put a steel bolt through a store cupboard door and stuck into the block wall behind it, great fun provided by proper teachers.

 

[Welderpaul]

It was 18 years ago since I was at school, but from what I remember we had a fairly well equipped CDT department. The two teachers that ran it were a bit straight laced and were much more orientated in the design and research of products; actually making the thing always came second fiddle.
They had a little tiny Clarke MIG, a small bandsaw, a little metal lathe and one of those toy press brakes that would fold tin foil. That was about it for the metalwork bit.

For my A level project I made a trailer, got the steel delivered direct to school, cut it up and tacked everything together. I taught both the teachers over quite a few dinner times how to stick weld - neither of them had ever done it but became quite good, quite quickly. With other things going on at the time, girls and beer probably, the job fell behind so I took it home to finish it off. The trailer left school as a tacked up frame and came back finished, timbered base, jacks, axles, mud guards, H frame, drop down sides, all painted up, electrics, the works. Dad got a phone call questioning whether I had 'had a bit of help' over the hols - 'not off me pal' replies father, I wouldn't have a clue.
Eventually my Dad ended up bringing one of the teachers home to have a look in the garage which was pretty much kitted out as a mini fab shop. Luckily there were plenty of photos about of me making it at home.

From what I remember we were never really taught any skills in CDT, it was all theory, and a lot to do with mass production. I learnt more from spending most school holidays helping out a neighbour who was a fitter/fabricator with endless jobs. He spent a lot of time showing me how to do stuff, and paid me in tools, plant and materials that fell out of his work. Both my Granddad's were retired Engineers who spent a lot of time showing me how to use tools correctly, how to look after them etc.

Rest of it is self taught I suppose, plus learning from others as you go along.

I end up in a few schools with my job, a couple of which are big Grammar schools over this way. Their CDT departments are huge, some nice welding sets, presses, guillotines, lathes, mills etc and lads and lasses that look like they know how to produce some fairly good stuff with them.
We 'borrow' their facilities from time to time (We do quite a bit of maintenance), quite often leading to impromptu welding lessons with the class and the teacher all stood round watching a 'professional welder' welding something up on their bench.

 

[Benthosboy]

Just before I left school in 1980, they had a superb workshop built. Lathes, shapers, drills, mills, surface grinders, and a small furnace. It frightened the bejesus out of me!! It's ironic, therefore , that I ended up working for a machine tool dealer, using the very same machines, albeit on a bigger scale. I also detested geography, and ironically again, I now love getting out in the mountains and reading maps.

When I lost my dear old Mum and Dad two years back, I had a drive around my old haunts. My old school, Colley School, Parson Cross, is no more. It was closed, vandalized, then subsequently burnt down! Being originally from Ecclesfield, on the top side of Sheffield, I should have gone to Ecclesfield Comprehensive, same as my brother and sister. When I left Ecclesfield Junior school, the comp was full, so me and my mates got parcelled off to Colley, a school with not the finest reputation, the same as Parson Cross itself. I often think "what if......."

 

[Wedg1e]

They call it "abusing a position of trust" - according to Wikipedia, there was a maths teacher at out school who went to prison for that.

One of these was an English teacher who'd had polio as a child so he was a bit stunted; the other ran the Army Cadet detachment at school!

 

[zzr1200]

Just had some good news my son has been excepted (ACCEPTED........) for Elutec college of design and engineering, for year 10 & 11. Then he has to reapply for year 12 onwards.

There are others dotted around the country, so if your sons and/or daughters are interested in engineering look here for engineering colleges near you.