Design & Technology
Design & Technology is a distinctive, creative, problem-solving subject that combines intellectual concepts and knowledge with practical skills through purposeful practical activities.
Design & Technology (D&T) is an important subject in a fast-changing technical world; one that makes a distinctive contribution to the curriculum. It gives students an appreciation and understanding of the designed and built world around them and teaches important transferable employability skills not covered in other subject areas. It offers relevant opportunities for a wide range of teaching and learning styles enabling students to achieve, learn and value their schooling.
Our curriculum is about empowering students to be creative, considerate of wider issues and capable of realising their own designs. We provide opportunities for pupils to develop their capability, through combining their designing and making skills with scientific and technical knowledge and understanding. They use this to create products, using a wide range of materials and processes.
Students focus on the areas of Product Design, Textiles, and Food Technology. The creative process in which pupils are engaged is interactive and is centred around the iterative design process. It is a cyclical and repeating process as students swing between thinking and doing, but involves a series of identifiable core concepts which all aspects of D&T can be linked to or explained by:
The Core Concepts
- Explore - investigating design opportunities, being enquiring and curious, identifying needs, and finding ways to overcoming problems as they arise.
- Create - developing creative design proposals, and modifying them in light of evaluation, and planning and making prototypes of proposed solutions
- Evaluate - evaluating the effectiveness of proposals, processes used, and the products made, and identifying further potential developments and next steps.
key stage 3
Year 7
This D&T Foundation year, covering all areas of Design and Technology, is taught by the same teacher over the year.
Year 6/7 transition
- What is Design and Technology and the iterative design process?
Graphics skills
- How can design ideas be presented effectively?
Computer Aided Design and Manufacture (CAD/CAM)
- How and why are computers used to design and make products?
Polymers and Workshop skills
- How are thermo-polymers used to make products?
- How can tools and equipment be used safely and accurately?
Fibres and Fabrics
- How are fabrics constructed?
- How are decorative techniques used to make textile products?
Cooking and Nutrition
- What are the elements of a healthy diet?
Structures
- How is structural integrity designed into products?
Year 8
Year 8 is focused on the development of skills and materials knowledge.
Cooking and Nutrition
- What are the key features of Food and Nutrition?
- How to cook a repertoire of predominantly savoury dishes?
Textiles
- Exploring the designs of others to influence the designing and making of a textile product.
Metals
- How are metals used to design and make products?
Timbers
- How are wooden products designed and made?
Electronics
- How are electronic products designed?
- How are microcontrollers used?
Year 9
Year 9 is focused on developing knowledge and skills in core D&T technical principles and the application of materials knowledge.
Cooking and Nutrition
- What are the key features of Food and Nutrition?
- How to cook a variety of dishes using pastry.
- How and why are eggs used as a functional ingredient in the cooking of a range of dishes?
- How to cook a variety of dishes from different countries and cultures.
Textiles
- Exploring the designs of others to influence the designing and making of a textile product.
- What is sustainable design? How can we use it to design and make textiles products?
Think like a designer
- Exploring a range of design strategies and using the iterative design process.
Design for Manufacture
- Developing designs into made prototypes.
Graphics Skills
- Developing graphics and presentation skills
Project Pinocchio
- Business simulation activity
key stage 4
We offer two courses at Key Stage 4: GCSE Design & Technology (specialising in either Product Design or Textiles) and GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition.
GCSE Design and Technology J310
Exam Board: OCR
Courses start in Year 10 with a number of focused practical tasks and projects designed to raise students’ skill levels.
The Design and Make coursework (Non-examined Assessment) is worth 50% of the final mark), begins towards the end of Year 10 and continues until the end of the Spring Term in Year 11. Students select one of the three contexts set by the exam board and develop their own product. Students are set a number of interim deadlines during this time and are provided with support materials and assessment information to enable them to maximise their marks.
GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition 8585
Exam Board: AQA
This course focuses on practical cooking skills to ensure students develop a thorough understanding of nutrition, food provenance and the working characteristics of food materials.
For more information about these two courses, please see our Year 9 Options booklet.
key stage 5
A Level GCE Design and Technology: Product Design H406
Exam Board: OCR
The course is all about innovative and creative designing – developing product ideas and prototyping them.
For full details on this course, please see our college prospectus.