DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING
“The goal of a designer is to listen, observe, understand, sympathize, empathize, synthesize, and glean insights that enable him or her to ‘make the invisible visible."
- Hillman Curtis
Technology is constantly impacting on our lives by evolving and transforming the way we live through innovative ideas. Students are guided through diverse and challenging situations so that designs evolve to become precise, accurately made artefacts using resistant and compliant materials.
OUR CURRICULUM INTENT
In Design Technology and Engineering, we aim to develop and inspire students' curiosity and Innovative fascination about the Engineering design journey, teaching the model of Explore, Create and Evaluate by using a range of practical and technical engineering processes to solve real-world problems and encourage students to become Brave, Inquisitive and Independent designers.
SUBJECT CURRICULUM JOURNEY OVERVIEW
STUDENT LEARNING JOURNEY OVERVIEW
KS4 Design Technology
KS5 BTEC Engineering
STUDENT LEARNING RESOURCES & GUIDES
The button below will navigate to a series of resources which will support the development of skills and techniques and understanding of the subject.
KS4 & KS5 EXAM BOARDS
Key Stage 4
Pupils will follow the AQA Exam Board assessment criteria and all work done will be against the GCSE assessment objectives. Design and Technology are suited to students who have a desire to design and make high-quality prototypes through a range of modelling and machine-based product manufacture.
In Year 10 students will develop your deeper understanding of the principles of Design with some basic Engineering before moving onto an ‘major’ project set by the exam board to showcase the skills they have developed.
In Year 11 students will complete the externally set NEA assignment (Non- Examined Assessment) and study towards the written examination.
NEA Coursework
50% of total qualification
Exam
50% of total qualification
2hrs Written Exam Assessment.
Key Stage 5 - BTEC National Extended Certificate in Engineering
Engineering is ideal for creative thinkers with an aptitude for engineering, and have a passion for solving problems using the application of Mathematics and the Engineering Design Process.
Pupils will follow the BTEC Exam Board assessment criteria and produce a range of in-depth coursework, particle lab reports and 1 exam.
The National Extended Certificate consists of 4 units of which 3 are mandatory and 2 are external. The units consist of :
Mandatory Units :
Engineering Principles (External exam)
Delivery of Engineering Processes Safely as a Team (Internally assessed)
Engineering Product Design and Manufacture (Externally assessed)
Optional Units :
Depending on students preferences they must pick between :
Computer-Aided Design in Engineering (Optional – internally assessed)
or
Electronic Devices and Circuits (Optional – internally assessed)
DESIGN TECHNOLOGY WHOLE SCHOOL CURRICULUM CONTRIBUTION
What are the core skills students develop in our subject?
Design and Technology absorbs pupils from all backgrounds, flaring their creativity as they engage with designing and making prototypes that solve real-life problems, whilst considering the needs, wants and values of identified primary users and stakeholders.
Discover - The problem and the user
Define - The insight gathered from the discovery phase can help you to define the challenge in a different way.
Develop - Encourages people to give different answers to the clearly defined problem, seeking inspiration from elsewhere and co-designing with a range of different people.
Deliver - Delivery involves testing out different solutions at small-scale, rejecting those that will not work and improving the ones that will.
We encourage innovative independent thinking, collaboration and problem-solving – key skills, which will be of benefit for the rest of their lives. Our aims are to encourage all our students to participate in and discover how to appreciate our multi changing technological society.
What are the big ideas in our subject?
What Designers and Engineers actually do?
How things move or work in our ever-changing society?
How you can design products to support user empathy and User-Centered Design?
How does the Design Process work in the industry?
How products are designed with the user in mind?
How do we ensure we support the development of core skills?
Students develop their understanding of Design and Technology through focusing on building core design principles through a range of practical based briefs through the development of prototypes and a range of modelling and machine-based product manufacture. They explore the role of design, design ideas and develop their creative potential across a range of material areas; including Product Design Graphic Design, Resistant Materials and Engineering.
What motivates and interests our students?
Design is a very “hands-on” subject with lots of practical work, where students can gain satisfaction from producing prototypes from designs they have created. Our students will build a large practical skill and knowledge base from working with a wide range of materials, tools and equipment and experts from industries.
How do we ensure consistency across the key stages?
Building on previously covered skills and knowledge, Design and Technology at secondary level focuses on the use of more sophisticated resourcing, including; specialist teaching environments, manufacturing equipment and a more individual approach to.