Last year's gold medal winners included a coffee table created in maple, a chess board in walnut and mdf and a model golf buggy fashioned from birch, plywood and mahogany.
Teaching staff commented that participation in the competition had brought three broad outcomes; an impetus for individual students to complete projects, the usefulness of the competition website as a secondary teaching resource and the strengthening of links between the academic and commercial sectors.
As well as expecting the competition to stimulate interest in woodworking, the organisers anticipate the event contributing to student awareness of timber ecology and sustainability issues. Norman McKenna, Operations Director of Fitchett and Woollacott said, "Sourcing timber from sustainable forests has long been our number one procurement objective. We have obtained the very highest certifications including the Forest Stewardship Council's award, the chain of custody discipline for tracing forest products right through from source to the end customer. Our knowledge about sustainable timber is unsurpassed and we can guide schools in this area and help to educate the students."
Your school's chance to win
There are prizes for students across three age groups; 13-14 year olds (years 8-9), GCSE (years 10-11) and "A" Level (years 12-13). Winners will receive a Nintendo Wii and runners-up a personal media player or an i-Pod.
Participating schools will compete for materials and equipment for their D&T department, including £1000 worth of timber, a Hegner scroll saw, a Walton Designs multi-angle drawing board and Focus Educational Interactive Learning Software.
Taking part is easy. Teachers simply e-mail a couple of digital images of the finished work. Full details on how to enter, as well as examples of last year's entries can be found at http://www.fitchetts.co.uk/
Winners will be invited to November's D&T in Education Exhibition at the NEC as guests of the sponsors to receive their prizes.
