Design, Engineering and Technology (DET) has inspired generations of engineers, designers and industrialists at Oundle School. Since the start of the twentieth century, Oundle has been a renowned for its excellence in the fields of STEM.
In the Patrick Engineering Centre, pupils work across a range of cutting-edge skills from robotics, programming, product development to computer aided design and manufacture. There are also extensive workshop spaces for manufacturing techniques in metal and wood.
Subjects taught here
The Patrick Engineering Centre spans a design laboratory, a technology laboratory, two classrooms and four open-plan workshop bays. It is famous for its workspaces, which over the years have seen dozens of large projects such as cars and hovercrafts engineered and restored. The Centre is equipped with the very latest technology and is one of the only schools in the country to be able to print 3D in any material, from elastomers and rigid plastics to titanium and carbon fibre. As visitors often remark, the Patrick Engineering Centre feels nothing like a school; it is an environment in which pupils are challenged to develop their own creative problem-solving skills.
Over the past five years, Oundle pupils have been awarded twenty Arkwright Engineering Scholarships, regarded by universities and industry as one of the most prestigious accolades that a talented Sixth Form pupil can achieve. The scholarships consist of an annual financial award and a range of enrichment activities, such as mentoring and industry visits that enhance a Scholar’s experience of engineering and technical design in a real-world context.
We foster inquisitive minds and in the Patrick Engineering Centre, we encourage our pupils to investigate and experience the three languages of design; aesthetics, articulation and analysis.
Through our Scholarship programme we are looking to identify and nurture curious young people with passion, commitment and creativity, offering exciting opportunities, bespoke experiences and world-class facilities in return.
The Patrick Engineering Centre has been an amazing place to improve my DET skills and to try out new ideas. As a Scholar, the time I have spent in the Design, Engineering and Technology department has been invaluable and it has helped me to find and develop skills that I hope to use in a future motorsports engineering career.
13+ Design, Engineering and Technology Scholar
Design laboratory for prototyping and design work
Technology laboratory
Dedicated classrooms for design and theory
3D printers
Four open-plan workshop bays
Large multi-use projects space
Former headmaster Mr FW Sanderson established a workshops tradition at the end of the 19th century and brought engineering into the Sixth Form as an academic subject.
The Patrick Centre opened in 1997 on the site of the old workshops, funded and named after Alex Patrick, an Old Oundelian. In 2016 it was extended, exhaustively refurbished, and re-launched as the Patrick Engineering Centre.
