1. What is the curriculum rationale in Design & Technology?

Intent: purpose and values of Design & Technology

Our intent in Design & Technology is to provide a rich curriculum, which responds to the needs of the students, the society they live in and the global challenges future generations will face. To achieve this objective, we believe our teaching staff need to be knowledgeable and highly motivated, exude creative energy and are a key factor in facilitating an atmosphere in which students can grow in confidence and enjoy learning.

We aim to stimulate intellectual development and enrich the lives of our students by sparking interest in their immediate environment, recognising the needs of others and appreciating the work of past and present designers and engineers who have created new meaning in order to better the world we live in.

Our curriculum is ambitious, well considered and has been carefully sequenced to build and develop the big ideas over time. We adopt mainly a process-based approach to learning rather than content specific. What we study and how we study allows students to acquire and develop knowledge and technical understanding through active involvement in the learning process. First hand experiences are the starting point for the progressive acquisition of core and specialist knowledge, technical and practical skills.

At the heart of our creative curriculum is the engagement with practical tasks. These tasks should specifically serve identified needs, solve problems – and for the most part work. It is considered essential that these learning activities reflect the nature of the subject within a range of contexts. These include the world of work, the development of communities and society, the environment and the ways in which technologies or technological solutions address or affect these. Students are encouraged to make, share, justify and discuss value judgements with respect to their own design decisions and those of others at all key stages.

We aim to develop technological capability in our students.  This encompasses understanding of appropriate concepts and processes: the ability to apply knowledge and skills by thinking and acting confidently, imaginatively and autonomously.  The ability to evaluate materials, processes, artefacts and systems critically and constructively is crucial whilst acknowledging individuality, aspirations and needs by providing a breadth of experience and choice to which our students can relate.

Student’s progress their learning by working within four subject areas; product design, textile technology, electronics and graphic products, becoming more technologically capable, for example by ‘broadening experiences; ‘strengthening’ confidence; ‘deepening’ knowledge and by ‘heightening’ creativity. Capability may only be achieved through the successful integration of the four subjects and by allowing students the freedom to make choices.

The curriculum, the learning and teaching methodologies used in the department are designed to give students opportunities to develop these capabilities. Projects offer progression and appropriate challenge. We have also engineered the curriculum “to move forwards and backwards”, students working iteratively through the “design realisation cycle”, returning to key concepts and core knowledge to gradually build deeper understanding resulting in more successful solutions. The subject naturally cultivates several important aspects, particular critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, evaluating and decision making.

Experiential learning is a key approach and students are given ample scope for choice and personalisation, particularly at key stage 4 and 5.

2. What is the 'big picture' in D&T?

The ‘big picture’ outlines how the Big Ideas and areas of knowledge of each subject fit together:

The Big Ideas of Design & Technology  are:

• Making “new meaning” to shape the world we live in
• The creation of product solutions
• Aesthetic qualities that provoke response (form)
• The solving of problems to meet other’s needs, wants and aspirations (function)

We shape students understanding of the Big Ideas by adopting an iterative approach to design: moving backwards and forwards through the “design realisation cycle”, in order to produce designs that do solve problems.

There are four key areas of knowledge which are necessary to become a subject expert in Design & Technology:

1. Conceptual understanding: That our students build declarative knowledge (knowing that) through studying the work of others, understanding the world around them, e.g. facts, ideas, technological developments and successful imaginings

2. Procedural fluency: That our students build procedural knowledge (knowing how to) through experiencing how a designer thinks, explores and makes decisions, e.g. having the ideas and knowing how to achieve functionality as well as form

4. Disciplinary knowledge: That our students build the habits of creative thinking, effective enquiry and technical know-how, so that they can apply this knowledge to different problems, e.g the exploration, testing and refining of solutions – striving for accuracy, functionality and form
5. Language: that our students understand, see the value and are fluent in the “laws” that inform design

3. What does knowledge look like in Design & Technology?

4. What do we teach and when