Design & Technology

Design and Technology prepares students to participate in tomorrow’s rapidly changing technologies. They learn to think and intervene creatively to improve quality of life. The subject calls for students to become autonomous and creative problem solvers, as individuals and as members of a team. They must look for needs, wants and opportunities and respond to them by developing a range of ideas and making products and systems. They combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues and function and industrial practices. As they do so, they reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and effects. Through design and technology, all students can become discriminating and informed users of products and become innovators.

During Key Stage 3, all students are taught in 8 week rotations in a range of specialist Design and Technology areas including, Graphics, Food and Nutrition, and Product Design. At the beginning of the Key stage, the programme is teacher led to impart the basic knowledge and skills required for students to become creative, innovative practitioners of technology. As they develop their skills the students are presented with design and make activities. These involve designing and making, to solve a particular problem. Both design and make skills are expected to be of a high quality and demonstrate analytical and innovative thinking.

Design and Technology - Product Design

The AQA GCSE in Design and Technology offers a unique opportunity in the curriculum for learners to identify and solve real problems by designing and making products or systems. Through studying GCSE Design and Technology, learners will be prepared to participate confidently and successfully in an increasingly technological world; and be aware of, and learn from, wider influences on design and technology, including historical, social/cultural, environmental and economic factors.

Technology covers a wide range of activities and has natural links with science and art teaching. In Technology, understanding and applying scientific principles is just as important as the development of ‘making skills’. Our aim is to reflect the complex abilities required to gain control over the man-made world. The common activities in all Technology courses are 'designing and communicating', 'making', 'testing', and 'evaluating'.

Technology has a vital part to play in your education if you are to be prepared for living and working in an industrial society. In activities such as ‘designing or adapting’, then ‘making’, you will respond to problems which are often unfamiliar. In producing a solution, you will have to make decisions bearing in mind the restraints of time, available resources and your own skills.

All areas of Technology are taught through a 'problem solving' approach. This approach encourages pupils to think about and experience scientific, aesthetic, social, ethical and mathematical issues and concepts.

Graphic Design

Graphic Design is a form of visual communication. It is a process by which visual information is given form and structure, so as to communicate a message. Being a Graphic Designer is the profession of visual communication that combines images, words and ideas to convey information to an audience. It involves designing print or electronic forms of visual information for advertisement, publication or website.

The NCFE Level 2 Technical Award in Graphic Design complements GCSE qualifications. It is aimed at 14-16 year olds studying Key Stage 4 curriculum who are interested in any aspects of graphic design, including sourcing ideas and design. It is equivalent to GCSE grades 8.5 - 1. This qualification focuses on an applied study of the graphic design sector and learners will gain a broad understanding and knowledge of working in the sector.

This qualification has been designed to sit alongside the requirements of core GCSE subjects and is appropriate for learners who are motivated and challenged by learning through hands-on experiences and through content which is concrete and related directly to those experiences. This Level 2 qualification is appropriate for learners who are looking to develop a significant core of knowledge and understanding in graphics design and an understanding of how to apply their learning to the graphic design sector.