The Patrick Centre, home to the School's Engineering, Design and Technology departments, exists thanks solely to the outstanding generosity of Alex Patrick, OO, after whom the building is named (shown left: with a pupil inside The Patrick Centre). Opened in October 1998, the Patrick Centre offers an optimal working environment in which pupils can learn and experiment.

Further Foundation assistance has also provided for the purchase of specialist equipment, such as the CAD/CAM routing system installed within the Patrick Centre in 2004. This combines software and machinery, allowing pupils to visualise and construct 3D forms in layers of variable width and depth, thus enabling the construction of objects within objects. Oundle is the first School in the country to have such a system.

Fundamentally, donations increase the scope of the department and, in so doing, extend the opportunities available to pupils for expanding their potential. Wherever they sit in the academic range, and whatever their scientific priorities, pupils can now manufacture their ideas in a variety of ways, whilst suggestions can be communicated more effectively and problems can be solved in a fresh, creative and individual manner.

Clive Humphreys
Head of Design, Patrick Centre