Design Technology

In the Design and Technology Department our aim is to deliver a curriculum that is a fusion of tradition and modernity. Design and Technology is about designing a better world and we recognise that we should teach our students the traditional craft and catering skills that have served us so well, whilst also introducing students to modern and futuristic technology such as computer aided design and robotics.

Breadth and ambition of the curriculum

Our Design and technology curriculum has 3 distinct yet complementary areas which are Product Design, Textiles Technology and Food Technology. Our teachers are specialist in at least one of these areas, however, due to the experience within the department, students in Years 7 and 8 will stay with the same teacher for 2 years across all areas, allowing the teacher to build a strong relationship with each student and understand their unique strengths within the subject. In Year 9 students will study 2 of the above 3 options with a specialist teacher before deciding whether to study Design and Technology at GCSE and A Level.

Curriculum

Our curriculum is ambitious and really stretches students so that they can make projects that they can be truly happy with. Our curriculum recognises that Design and Technology exists on a spectrum. On one end we have ‘Soft Design and Technology’ which privileges design and creativity and making products beautiful. On the other end of the spectrum is ‘Solid Design and Technology’, which involves manufacturing and making products work. Therefore, we need to create a curriculum that gives students the opportunities to develop skills on both ends of the spectrum and find their niche where they are most comfortable.

In Year 7 we have a focus on building core skills and knowledge as students make a battle tops ‘Beyblade Game’, a ‘Day of the Dead’ mask in Textiles, and a range of tasty dishes in Food Technology. In Year 8, armed with this core knowledge and skills students have much more freedom over their designing and are introduced to electronics. We make a mood lamp in Product Design, an e-textiles bucket hat with embedded LED’s in Textiles, and much more advanced food dishes in Year 8. Students continue to build on these skills, which include 3D printing and laser cutting, all the way through Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. We have chosen to use Eduqas as our exam board which we believe allows us to deliver an exciting, authentic and balanced curriculum in a sustainable and manageable way.

We follow the principle of “Gradual Release” in order to teach students how to be independent, creative problem solvers. This principle states that at first, we cannot assume that students will be able to solve challenging design problems and communicate their ideas in a coherent way unless we explicitly teach them the skills. Therefore, in Years 7 and 8 we teach the students the core skills and knowledge they need to be successful. Over time we gradually release students to become more independent in their decision making and more creative with their solutions. It is a tried and tested technique that works and helps to develop independent problem solvers, an invaluable skill for our modern world.

We have lists of key words that each student will receive at the start of each project. We want our students to speak like engineers and designers and therefore developing a vocabulary that enables them to do this is key.

Approaches to learning and assessment

We encourage students to take risks, give things a go and not be afraid to make mistakes. In Key Stage 3 we push students to be ambitious with their designs as we know that they will learn so much by pushing the boundary and trying new skills and using new machines.

At Key Stage 3 we have three strands of summative assessment, and two strands of formative assessment. Our summative assessments consist of the project work, the students design work in their sketchbook, and a ‘Quest’ – which is not quite a quiz, not quite a test, but a multiple choice “quest” which assesses their knowledge of all of the theory they covered whilst completing the project.

Our formative assessment consists of constant feedback in class from our teachers which we believe is the real key to success – often students will come up with great ideas in class and need help and guidance at that moment from our teachers to guide them in the right direction. Our second strand of formative assessment consists of DIRT activities which are guided by targets which form the success criteria for the students designing, making and literacy activities in the subject.

Supporting individual students:

By changing our structure in Years 7 and 8 and allowing teachers to stick with their classes for the full 2 years, yet still offering a wide and varied curriculum, we are very well equipped to stretch students but also allows teachers to get to know their pupils and understand their individual needs. We follow all of the major school approaches to support students with individual needs such as; checklists of work to complete, lots of visual guides, supports and examples, as well as more specialised support such as aids for clamping and working with materials for students that need assistance when working with materials.

Our projects are very ambitious and have been carefully constructed to allow all students to succeed. However, the outcomes are all open ended which allows our more able students to really extend themselves and be stretched in a host of different ways, whether that be in terms of manufacturing using advanced tools or machinery, or designing ambitious concepts and presenting them in innovative ways.

Extra-curricular opportunities

One of the most exciting things about our Design and Technology department are the extra-curricular opportunities that we offer students. We compete nationally in the Vex Robotics competition in which students receive a box of parts and must design, build and programme a robot to play a game that changes each year. We have had numerous successes in this competition, often against independent and grammar schools with much larger budgets than our own. However, due to the hard work of the students and the positive environment of the club, The Cotswold School robotics club have become one of the teams to beat in the UK.

We also run an Interior Architecture Club for students who want to get involved with design outside of their lessons, and compete in a range of catering competitions such as the ‘Rotary Young Chef of the Year Competition’ in which we have also been very successful. We also run a Drawing Club and also lead the STEM activities in the school such as; the weekly STEM club and the ‘Engineering Buggy Design Challenge’, in which teams of students must design a buggy to carry a passenger safely around a track that contains a range of tricky obstacles. We also run Lego Club, Cooking Club and power kiting when the weather is fine.

To find out more about Vex Robotics click here.

Key Stage 4 Curriculum Map

(click the links below for more information)

Textiles Food Product Design
Year 10 Fidget Blanket

Mock NEA – Net Zero

 Food Preparation and Nutrition: Food Commodities  ‘Chindogu’ Useless Design 

Child’s Toy Project 

Skillsbot