Turner Free School

Turner Free School in Folkestone, Kent is part of the Turner Schools Multi Academy Trust whose aim is to transform children’s futures, empower families and strengthen communities..

Nortek Group were invited to tender for the loose furniture and machinery supply for two workshops and a prep room which had been awaiting their equipment since the new school was built and the pupil role reached KeyStage 3 ready for GCSE examinations to begin.

Being predominantly techincal loose furniture specialists for D&T we invited Tilgear, a dedicated educational machinery specialist to partner alongside us. Together, and with input from the client along the way as to what their aspirations were for each space, we designed a fully functional D&T workshop, prep room and design studio. Four pupil Craftwork 1000 workbenches were supplied with one having a height adjustable facility for those year 7/8 pupils who need a slightly lower bench height. Drop-in 3″ piggy back metalwork vices made the space as functional as possible allowing different materials to be used and explored within the workshop.

We supplied two mobile twin fretsaw benches with underbench dust extraction. These can be shared between both rooms if required. Piggy back vices were stored on special trolleys designed to safely store the vices and allow them to be brought directly to each bench for safe mounting and dismounting into the 7″ woodwork vices fixed to the benches. Material storage solutions as well as centralised tool storage with perfo tool hanging were provided as well as a technicnians bench and teacher demonstration bench. The Design Studio was supplied with low voltage trunking, 24vAC 25w soldering outlets and solder fume tip extraction utilising the trusted Antex XS25 soldering iron and tip extraction kit. We were very pleased to see a dedicated electronics area to allow pupils to develop their skills in this important but often overlooked element of the D&T curriculum.

Amelia Aslett the Head of D&T commented on the end result: –

“The people at Nortek could not have been more helpful in advising and then installing equipment for our new engineering workshops at Turner Free school, Folkestone. The design team and I worked together to first establish what the needs of the curriculum were before I was given a range of options per equipment I ordered. This ranged from soldering iron benching, to scroll saw desks, work benches and storage solutions. After the final quotes were approved, I had a variety of visits from Nortek to ensure everything would fit correctly and then the installation. Training was given after installation on the machines, as well as for the workbenches and storage solutions. After using them all for the past 18 months, I cannot recommend Nortek enough. Firstly because of the ease it was to work with them on this installation but also the excellent customer care I have received.”