March 2022 – St Marylebone Art & Design

When you buy seasonal food you are helping to reduce environmental impact caused by the shipping & transportation from other countries, this means less refrigeration as well as supporting local farming demand for out of season produce…If produce is not being shipped this means there are less artificial hothouses, less fuels and less irradiation of produce which generally helps to produce less GHG emissions, compared to fruit and vegetables that are grown under protection, are imported or stored!

Food picked in season is also usually a lot cheaper than that of its out-of-season counterparts because overheads are lower due to the above mentioned stages required to transport and store goods.

It’s more nutritious. Eating locally is not only tastier, it’s also healthier! Ripe fruits and vegetables contain the most nutrients, as the minute they’re picked, their plant cells begin to shrink and their nutrients diminish

Within our Food & Nutrition GCSE Courses, Year 10 & 11 have been focusing on ingredients which are in season (and some even grown in department using our urban cultivator to start them off which was funded by The Savoy Educational Trust). The current theme being Butternut Squash.

Year 11 students followed a French recipe making ‘Butternut Squash Sage and Gruyère Pithivier’ where they each brushed-up on their pastry making skills by making the rough puff pastry themselves and practiced their outer pastry designs.

The pastry was made from scratch individually by each student using the new blast chiller which was also funded by the Savoy Educational Trust. We get so much use from the blast chiller in this department! its sometimes used in all three double-periods per day! It has been incredibly beneficial to all of our students in showing them industry standard procedures and bringing a higher quality finish to their final dishes. It has also been beneficial to students by speeding up the making time and allowing more theory teaching time.

Year 10 students worked on improving their home-made pasta skills with a ‘Butternut Squash, Spinach, Ricotta stuffed Tortellini’ with the pasta made fresh and rolled out both by hand and by use of a pasta press.
Below is their process.

The Y13’s have spent the last two days making their final coursework outcomes. There was lots of oil paint and medium, the largest carton print (life size figure) that I have ever seen and some spectacular work!

After half term Key Stage 3 students will be moving into new areas of Design and Technology(DT). We are taking this opportunity to share some of the wonderful work created so far which they will be bringing home shortly.

To support the creativity and learning of all our students we rely on a voluntary contribution each year towards the materials and ingredients throughout their time in DT.

At the beginning of the year we ask for a single voluntary contribution of £8.00 at KS3 and £12.00 at KS4. This allows us to have resources ready for students to maximise their experience in this practical subject.

Thank you for your support!

here are some great examples of student work

Year 7 DT Product – Electronic Money Boxes

Year 8 DT Product – CADCAM Polymer Photo Frames

Year 9 DT Product – CADCAM Trinket Boxes, Birdfeeders and Insect Houses

Cargo Connect

On Saturday, 22nd January (DT Club students) won the robot design for the First Lego League Competition. Dedicated DT Club students took part in the regional finals at Bechtel’s offices in Park Royal. They showed excellent teamwork and, in the short time that was available, prepared and competed this season’s Cargo Connect Project and Robot Mission!

For the Project, students investigated and designed alternative power sources to transport goods to reduce the impact on the environment. They were also delighted with the 175 points scored by successfully programming and completing their robot missions.

Their teamwork paid off! They won the Robot Design Trophy by showing the judges how effective they were at working together.

Well done to Lea, Megan and Misha in Year 11, Isabella, Mia and Sara in Year 9 and Georgete, Ioanna and Penelope in Year 7 for their hard work Lego building, project making and participation in the competition.

We are hoping to welcome new Lego Roboteers to DT Club on Thursdays after school to continue with our quest for the top prize!