Wimbledon....what do you think of? Tennis, probably, with a packed centre court, officials and ball girls and boys, players in white....Y13 Annabel Parry and two of her Design & Technology teachers spent the morning there on 17 February, as a guest of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club. Not a strawberry or a star in sight; only a row of low-slung lights to encourage the grass to grow.

But Annabel was able to continue researching for her A level DT project - a new design of the umpire's chair. Annabel is keen to use 3mm chequer-plate aluminium so was delighted to spend time with the most famous chair in the world and to compare her ideas with the traditional wooden style. "Before I got to Wimbledon, I was thinking about designing a model with three legs, and using aluminium. Having seen how stable the traditional design is, and knowing from retailers' experience how popular the wooden chair is, I'm re-thinking!" 

Good luck to Annabel for her A level coursework. You'll be able to see her design and read about how she bent the aluminium steps using London Engineering Company's 500 ton powerpress in the school magazine this autumn.

18 February 2011