There are many ways to understand what students experience in the Ideas Hub. Giving parents access to power tools is, it turns out, one of the most effective.
At last week’s Parents’ EDT Workshop, sixteen parents arrived with understandable hesitation and left fully immersed in the process of making: sanding, sawing, drilling, filing and casting, while rapidly building both confidence and curiosity along the way.
Guided by our EDT team, and supported by A Level students Niraya, Anushka and Ka Men, parents worked with a wide range of specialist equipment, including the disc sander, bandfacer, scroll saw, pillar drill, engineering lathe, palm router, laser cutter and 3D printed components. In the Hot Metals Workshop, they also experienced heating pewter on the brazing hearth before casting their own metal rings — a highlight of the evening.
For many, the experience was unfamiliar and at moments challenging, which served as a powerful reminder of the skill, independence and technical confidence our students develop through EDT.
An engaging and highly practical evening in the Ideas Hub, and a clear demonstration that learning by doing remains at the heart of the subject.
