The issue
Hand-held metal grinder use amongst workbooks and bags
Matthew Lane first arrived at Wellington College in 2003, fresh from teaching GCSE Design and Technology and AS and A2 levels in the UK, he was confronted with many practical health and safety and design environment issues. He describes the two workshops he had to teach hard materials in – T2 for wood working and T8 for metals – as "large, spacious centres of noise and dust".
"Machines that should have been long-since relegated to machine rooms for technicians, were still in the workshops. When in use, these machines rendered teaching/instruction nigh on impossible. Circular saws, buzzers and planer thicknessing machines were in the same environment as student work-benches, something I hadn't seen for 15 years. Indeed the use of bandsaws and routers by Year 10s was a restricted practice in the UK. Hand-held metal grinders were used by students in close proximity to others cutting with handsaws and there seemed to be little chance for anyone to have any reprieve despite multiple numbers of ear-protectors deployed to cushion the blow."
A room of workbenches and vices – no quiet areas for research and planning, no surfaces for drawing and modelling.
"Noise was one problem but dust a harder culprit to pin down – while the extraction system was good and removed the majority of dust, a thin layer could always be found settling uninvited."
To do online research and graphics work, Technology students (and staff) had to book computer rooms over the other side of the school. "It was best described as a free-for-all. The Library was used for research and development but was often used for more the three classes simultaneously and management of the Technology groups were a constant problem."
"The more I delved into the New Zealand Technology curriculum, the greater my concerns became about the environment in which my teachers and I were being asked to deliver it. What I was being asked to teach and deliver and the opportunities I was required to offer my students did not match the restrictive environment that we were all given."
Edward Wiley consulting with landscape architect Rebecca Wilson
In talking with students and staff, there was clearly frustration experienced by all when trying to produce quality Technological problem solving on a workbench with vices, dirty surfaces and no leg room. "The students came eager to 'make' and 'manufacture', and I set the scenarios, discussed stakeholders and reviewed potential problems. It was a time of frustration and disappointment to all. I surveyed several of my classes and their response was unanimous: 'If you want us to design and problem solve, then give us computers, books and flat surfaces'."
Matthew decided to lobby for major changes to the working/teaching spaces for Technology in the school. His resolve was strengthened by the advent of the Beacon Practice project, for which he successfully applied and Wellington College joined as a member of the Wellington cluster group.
"The Beacon project provided a platform to launch a successful bid for increased funding and expenditure on Technology," Matthew says. "Through this initiative I was able to enlist key Professional Support Facilitators to confirm my proposals and apply their experience to the problem solving and decision making required, which in turn helped give substance and weight to my presentations."
