That a school was most impressed with CNC machines widely used in industry meant it was giving the pupils real-world experiences and knowledge that is immediately transferable to employers.
A school whose most financially successful old boy helped fund the building, equipping and furnishing of a brand new technology suite and ICT wing, has won Technology Status and is rapidly gaining a reputation as the most exciting and successful school in the region. Amongst the ICT equipment in the new building at Balderstone Technology College in Rochdale are three multi-purpose machining centres for resistant materials and electronics and a library of special operating software, computers and the latest interactive whiteboards. The machining centre was purchased from Unimatic, a company which supplies identical equipment to manufacturing and industry as well as other educational organisations across the country.

Year 11 GCSE pupils at Balderstone are using the EduCam equipment to make not only the circuitry for high tech electronic projects but also the casings in which to mount them and other resistant materials artefacts.

The younger children of the school are also being stretched with an exciting new curriculum.

Balderstone Technology College was granted technology status, having put forward a very strong and well-structured bid to the Department for Education (DfEE).

Long-serving Head of Technology Cecile Biant recalls: 'Our school has developed steadily from its strong base, to the point where it became natural to seek specialist status.

Sports was an option for this, because we have great facilities, recognition and success; but we are also very strong on electronics and technology and we felt this would better serve our existing pupils and the community in general.' Considerable funding was required if Balderstone was to make a real success of the enterprise: GBP 50,000 for the new technology suite, GBP 30,000 for specialist CAD/CAM equipment and another GBP 20,000 for furnishing.

Some of this money would come with the status if the bid was successful, but half of the finance had to be in place before the DfEE would consider the idea.

Fortunately Balderstone had just re-established links with old boy Dr Peter Ogden, a very successful international computer magnate who had set up a charitable trust to support education.

Dr Ogden had publicly said that he thought his old school had closed down, but when the Head Teacher, Mr Wigget, heard this he wrote and invited him to visit.

'Dr Ogden was very supportive of our bid for technology status,' says Mrs Biant.

'However there was no headlong rush.

Instead a carefully considered plan was drawn up including curriculum development with local and regional employers, universities, and parents and coolheaded assessment of resource requirements.' Mrs Biant undertook rigorous market research into the best value for money CNC equipment available at the time for use with resistant materials, which resulted in a clear, unambiguous decision to go for Unimatic's EduCam range of machines.

'We were most impressed that these machines are so widely used in industry.

This means we are giving the pupils real-world experiences and knowledge that is immediately transferable to employers.

It also means, of course, that they can stand up to any amount of use and should serve us well for many years to come.' The operational flexibility of the EduCam was also attractive, as it allows staff and pupils to learn many different production techniques, such as milling, routing, turning, copying, on a huge range of materials, from plastics and resins to wood and metal.

Its software can interface directly with complementary educational systems, such as design software, pupil's own laptops and the interactive whiteboards.

Unimatic is constantly developing its EduCam offering, in both software and hardware, most of which is first proven in industry.

It also has a team of educational specialists who work with each school on a individual basis to ensure that their developing needs are constantly catered for, yet still find time to keep up with advances in the technology industries where some of the students will eventually find employment.