We take our skills, materials and equipment into our feeder schools to assist the teachers with the practical work.

Hand in glove with this we use the time to train the teachers in some focused techniques to help them develop their skills in teaching design.

We have developed projects for the fairground theme, vehicles and picture frames.  We have also had pupils visit the school to use our food facilities to make biscuits.

We use our facilities and buy in workshops for our own pupils and for other schools as part of the community outreach programme.

Primary schools are keen to use the department’s expertise to help bring designing and making into the primary experience. For the secondary schools we offer a wide range of support from visits to providing INSET training. One of our fields of expertise is in the use of CAD/CAM. Martin Chandler is a trainer for the Pro/DESKTOP software and all the staff use a variety of software including Techsoft 2D Design, Photoshop, Speedstep and many more. We have an array of machines for producing CAM products and the local CTLC has a 3D rapid prototype machine.