Key Stage 3

Key Stage 4

Key Stage 5

Subject content

Unit 1; Portfolio of Creative Skills. This unit will give you the opportunity to develop your creative, technical and practical skills through a series of product investigations, designing and making activities, which is internally marked.

You will produce one portfolio that has three distinct sections; Product Investigation, Product Design and Making.

1. The Product Investigation is an in depth study of an artifact such as an overhead projector, where materials, processes, form, function and system analysis are considered. The choice of product is pretty much up to you.
2. Product Design is a chance to show your creativity, innovation and flair in developing a brilliant, sustainable design idea of yours which is both fit for purpose and marketable. Cost, materials and resources are notconstraints - just your imagination. The sort of whizzo product that makes it onto Dragon's Den or The Gadget Show .
3. Making will be the practical part of the course where we will be dazzled and awed by your skill and imagination in making a product from materials supplied. There will be two or three specific briefs to meet and a number of focused activities using different materials and processes, but you don't have to produce a folio for them, just a schedule to plan the work effectively! This part replaces the long winded and expensive D&M projects of old.

Unit 2; Design & Technology in Practice. For this unit you will develop a knowledge and understanding of a wide range of traditional and new materials, processing and forming, components and applications of CAD/CAM. The H & S at Work Act (1974) is a topic linked to Industrial and Commercial methods which will be studied - some experienced, others taught or observed in factory visits. The assessment is a terminal hour and a half exam which is externally marked.

Enrichment days and trips

Throughout the year, the department provides at least one out of school trip to a museum or exhibition appropriate to the subject. Popular venues are the Design Museum , the Science Museum and there are numerous local factories and businesses for the upper school to visit.

Within school, enrichment days provide opportunities for pupils to concentrate their energies on practical and mechanical tasks, experience using different materials and co-operate with other departments in linked activities.

A whole day in the workshop is planned for GCSE pupils to make a significant contribution to the completion of their coursework.

A session on smart materials is planned with the science department, and methods of breaching castle walls are always a popular challenge on a shared history-based day.