Henry Street High School in Whitby, Canada has a Tech department much like many other High Schools across Canada.  They have an Automotive shop, a Construction and Wood working shop, a Hair Dressing Salon, and a Mechanical Design and Manufacturing Lab.  So why is Henry Street special?

Every year at Durham District School Board tech students and teachers gather together to test the skills taught within the Board and to prepare for the Annual Ontario Technological Skills Competition.  At the Durham Regional Skills event, students participate in a variety of competitions across a multitude of disciplines.

Henry Street High School was very successful this year at the Durham Skills Event, with a fifth consecutive Gold Medal in the Automotive Diagnostic Skills competition, a Gold Medal in the Mechanical CAD competition using Autodesk Inventor software, a Silver Medal in Hairdressing, and a Bronze Medal in Cabinet Making.

I visited Henry Street recently and when I was there I saw a school much like other schools in Ontario and across the Country.  Henry Street does not have the most up-to-date technology.  They do not have a multitude of state of the art manufacturing methods, design capabilities, or construction tools.  So what do they have at Henry Street?

In the CAD Lab there are quite a few drawings posted of Student projects involving small scale modeling and interior room design.  There is a lab of 25 computers for the students to use on which they design with Autodesk products such as Inventor and AutoCAD.  In the Manufacturing Lab there are two lathes as well as a few CNC mills and lathes that have seen better days.  The Auto shop is pretty typical and receives quite a lot of support from local industry.

With these tools, teachers at Henry Street have been successful.  The approach in this school is a combination of hands on mentoring and excited involvement in each student project.  In the past we have seen schools with one tech teacher with a single focus.  At Henry Street, I met several teachers who combine their experiences to give the students the most comprehensive background into all disciplines.  Teacher Andrew Flynn was teaching a small engines class in the Auto shop when I visited Henry Street.  When I met Andrew it was when his student won the Gold Medal in Mechanical CAD at the Durham Skills Event.  With an approach to multi-discipline instruction, the Tech teachers at Henry Street give their students the benefits of a variety and multitude of skill sets.  It is these skills sets which will improve the student’s chances of becoming Engineers or Designers, with skills that relate to all areas of industry.

In my opinion, the successes that have been had at Henry Street are the result of Teacher dedication and the ability to utilize the tools that are available.  Teachers must continually strive towards the ability to use the tools available while carefully choosing the correct way and direction for upgrade.

Studica is a proud part of this process.  It was a pleasure to visit this excellent example of student centric learning and dedicated mentoring.  If you would like more information on the successes of this program please contact Studica and we will help show you that all students can reach goals just like the students at Henry Street High School.

Author: Matthew Colbeck