Monday 30th June 08

Well done everyone today.
A few more students addressed their initial specification sheets - important that everyone does this before you disappear on work experience. RCk - re:- box on Corel draw - well done - some boxes cut out on laser ready to make up. NPwr - no more aeronautical testing please, you almost worked well all through lesson and did some good work. To all the boys working on the laser - well done to you all. The fishing shop model is looking good.

Photoshop is coming

Will endeavour to enable use asap

Thursday 26th June 08

Today we started and finished the specification for a couple of students using a guide illustrating two projects as examples, a mobile phone and a car exhibition stand. I want to mention that all boys today were constructively engaged - in particular NPwr and RCk. So well done you two. Students using the laser cutter also did very well.
AFTER THE MOCK EXAMS WE NEED TO RE-FOCUS.
We must return to our timetable. Our specification needs to be completed by everyone and it should detail all the projected outcomes for each project by each student. RCk is working on an unusual project and we had a good session establishing his specification which now looks rather exciting - MUST REMEMBER TO DESIGN A FREESTANDING ADVERT IN THE FORM OF A GAME CHARACTER.

Mock Exam results - paper only

Please peruse the aforementioned mock paper results . Overall not a bad effort considering the lack of preparation. What concerned me greatly was the almost illegible answers from some students, this needs attention. Lack of knowledge is easily addressed but is only of any use if your written communication is coherent and readable.

See the 2008 blog and see their OUTCOMES

The 2008 exam groups work is displayed and it will be helpful for you to have a look and assess your own planned outcomes. The work was received favourably by the moderators who visited us last Thursday. The car exhibition stand was considered a good choice with room for students to show evidence of hard work ( rigour ) in their efforts.
Students who have chosen other projects for this group ( 2009 ) will need to be aware of the required outcomes needed to gain top marks. Please remember what I have said about each project and how it needs to have several ( 5 min ) graphic outcomes.

Mock Exam CHANGE to paper.

Forget the mock exam I explained we would do recently. In fact we will take a past paper. We are to follow guidance which requres us to give students a past paper. This will help us to establish information about entry tiers. It is a pity we cannot follow our original scheme.

Change of room for Thursday 12th June - move to ICT1

The GCSE moderator - the person nominated from the examination board to check the outcomes of GCSE students - is visiting BGS. We have had to organise and display all the work of 40+ students in our usual teaching room - so we cannot use it.
Feedback.

Very very hot in this small room - 3 boys sent to use laser cutter.

Others tried to work in the room.

Explained what the mock examination ( on the 18th involved ) briefly showing them the paper and explaining it's layout.

Mentioned the new games shop near M+S / Subway - RC had, in fact been and suggested that it was good value - I mentioned it as some students are looking at Games Shop design.

NP, JT consistently distracted - they are finding it hard to concentrate.

Graphics Exam 18th June

I am preparing a graphics mock exam which is designed to assist students with their individual projects. The purpose of mentioning this is to remind students that they have a little longer to research their projects.
Today all students have worked wonderfully well - so thankyou for that boys.

GCSE GP Friday period 4 after lunch

Boys working well - CM seems to be obsessed with looking at cars, which is good as his project features car stands and car models. Suggested he does his car net research by visiting papertoys.com. All students except AMcF, DH, ML.

Thursday 5th June 2008 period 4 post lunch very hot

Too hot to work - boys did try but some found it difficult.
Some good prints produced using the A3 laser printer, especially by RCk. and AJwt.
RCh JC OH JL SO AT JT all worked very well making mock up models.
NC a little distracting but responded reasonably to comments.

FINISH your research and start your SPECIFICATION

Research should be completed by end of this week - though we can revisit later. MUST get on with our next target which is to complete our SPECIFICATION. This is a list of your final outcomes with details added, for example colour, material, users, sizes etc. Call your first spec. the INITIAL SPECIFICATION.
We are aiming to complete this by 20th June.
NP worked well with the assistance of AJ painting his stadium model, OH worked on making a prototype model of his projector. AG worked well on computers producing a questionnaire. RCh and others all worked well - only exception being CY-T who spent a lot of time looking at school gallery pictures - had a word with him,

Photoshop for GCSE GP

Hope everyone had a good half term holiday.
I can confirm that we have now obtained Photoshop which will help us all very much - we will load on machines for use in September. We need to finish our research and analysis by the end of the week and then get our specification drawn up. Check your timetable. This should be titled " Initial Specification" we will refine this later as it usually needs to be changed. When this has been done we need to start producing drawings of ideas - we need to see some variety of designs - one page of A3 for each end product - good busy pages with comments, colour and imagination.
You have a couple of weeks to draw up your spec so if you want a break from your folio consider, as NP has, making mock ups of your ideas. Try to photograph as much of this work as possible - it is vital for your folio.