Design & Technology Week 2018
January 15th saw the first Design and Technology Week arrive at St Hilda’s; a week of designing, building, egg dropping, hovercraft making and lessons all based around a theme of D&T. With GCSE D&T being a new option available to year 8 and 9, the purpose of the week was to ensure that students knew the opportunities available to them from studying D&T.
The week begun at pace with morning quizzes launched on Monday at 8.00am! Each day started with students completing a true or false quiz to learn more about different engineers and designers through history. Students learned about Steve Jobs, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Elsie Eaves, Ruth Davis and Roma Agrawal. With over 80 entries, the overall winner was Ellie Frith in year 8 with the most correct entries! Well done Ellie!
Monday lunchtime saw the start of one of the highlights of the week; the “Egg Drop Challenge.” Students were set the task of building a device that was capable of safely delivering an egg from the second floor balcony to the ground level without the egg breaking upon landing. With over fifty entrants, heats took place over lunchtimes with a variety of weird and wonderful ideas put together. The challenge saw many a fowl joke being cracked(!) and the challenge become an increasingly large spectacle each day. Students filled the atrium and surrounding balconies to get a good view of their devices being dropped. The standard of entries was very high and all who entered should take great pride in their efforts. Despite these efforts, not all were successful and we were very grateful to Mr Noble who cleaned up the mess left behind each day! Congratulations to overall winner Isaac Butland in Year 8 who successfully delivered an egg to the ground with the lightest device entered!
Wednesday morning saw the arrival of the Big Bang Fair at St Hilda’s. 
The fair provided every student from year 9, 10 and 11 with the opportunity to speak to Universities/employers about career and further education opportunities available to them. Representatives from all of the local Universities, the RAF, Royal Navy, St Hilda’s Sixth Form Science Dept. and Shaping Futures were on hand to answer questions regarding routes into careers in Engineering, Design and beyond. All of the representatives complimented the behaviour and inquisitive nature of students at St Hilda’s. They were all delighted to report that they had run out of prospectuses as a result of the volume of questions! With over 400 students through the doors, the first Big Bang Fair was a real success. To see students in year 9, 10 and 11 considering their futures and to hear so many saying that they want to study Maths, D&T and Science for A Level was very exciting indeed. St Hilda’s is full of potential future engineers and designers!
Thursday afternoon saw students in Years 7 and 8 enjoy special assemblies regarding what Design and Technology can do for them and their futures. Again, the inquisitive nature of students at St Hilda’s shone through with students engaging in lively question and answer session. Students at St Hilda’s are certainly very intrigued by the many different career paths available to them as a result of studying Design and Technology!
Throughout the week, students were able to enjoy a D&T twist to their other lessons too, with the English, Science, Maths and RE departments (amongst others!) exploring everything from theatrical set design to building and testing lungs!
With hype building throughout the week, the finale arrived on Friday at lunchtime in the form of the Hovercraft Challenge. The Design and Technology Department had challenged the Science Department to a battle of designing, building and teamwork; a challenge which they very enthusiastically accepted. Each team had to recruit members from the student body to help with the construction of a hovercraft that would be raced across the yard at Friday lunchtime! Despite last minute engine changes, adjustments and gaffa-taping, both departments had machines ready to race. With a yard full of students and staff present, the race was over in a flash with Team D&T the clear winners! Team Science’s Hovercraft, piloted by Alex Chakalov in year 8, competed valiantly, but Team D&T’s Hovercraft, piloted by Josh Birchall in year 7, took the day this year. Due to the competitive nature and fierce loyalty shown by students in each Team, the race will return next year in bigger and better form! Special thanks to Mr Noble, Mr Sheelan, Mr King, Mr Lloyd, Mr. Charlesworth, Theo Bains, Lucas Adlington, Fleur Fradgley, Bibi Holden, Charlie Foulkes and D&T/Science Club members for their hard work in making the race entertaining for all.
As the D&T Department grows, so too will D&T week. After such success this year, we look forward to next year and it becoming a real highlight of the year at St Hilda’s. Thank you to all students who took part in any capacity. Their enthusiasm for D&T week was the reason it was such a special and successful week. Well done to all.
