Design & Technology

We aim to make Design and technology at King James a unique and interesting subject. Pupils will develop their creativity, imagination and problem solving skills.  At King James from year 5 through to year 11, we aim to deliver a curriculum to equip our pupils with the knowledge and skills to do this through well thought out projects and units of work. 

Our Curriculum

What does this mean in practice: 

The DT curriculum has a blend of projects that develop knowledge of the technical principles and designing & making principles that play a huge part in good design. 

Some examples of the technical principles pupils need to learn about are materials and their working properties, sustainability and environmental issues relating to manufacturing and the use of products, mechanical devices, forces and stresses on materials and objects, production techniques in industry/enterprise and developments in this area (including CAD/CAM).  How all these technical principles come together to inform design decisions that are then made by pupils. 

Designing and making principles are developed through a wide range of different design projects at KS2-3.  Design and Technology forms part of the topic projects that pupils undertake in Year 5 and 6 and the KS2 teaching team work in collaboration with the DT department to develop interesting and relevant projects that meet the requirements of the national curriculum for DT.  At KS3 DT pupils have 1 hour per week and they experience projects in a range of different specialist areas of design in a carousel system throughout the year. The areas covered include graphic design, resistant materials, structures, electronics, CAD/CAM and Food.

You can view our KS2-KS4 Curriculum Journeys here.

Pupils who wish to continue with DT at KS4 can opt for GCSE (AQA) Design and Technology.  Pupils will have 5 hours of lessons a fortnight and will develop greater depth of knowledge in the technical principles and designing & making principles and build on what they have learnt previously at KS2-3.  In Year 10 they will do this through a range of smaller design projects, practical making skills projects, and theory lessons to focus on the technical knowledge required for the 2 hour exam paper and NEA project.

In June of Year 10 pupils will embark on a substantial design and make task (NEA) worth 50% of their GCSE final grade (100 marks) and pupils will work on this for a large chunk of Year 11. They will find a Client and conduct detailed research before developing their own design brief and specification. This project allows pupils to develop their own unique designs and prototypes and they work closely with their chosen client to develop a final prototype that they test. As part of this project they will explain and show how this prototype could be taken to full scale industrial production by producing a manufacturing specification.

To view a copy of the AQA Design & Technology course click here

The curriculum is monitored in a variety of ways, with both pupils and teachers having a say in how it develops. Each year we look at the whole curriculum for DT and update aspects as required to meet the needs of our pupils and to reflect the constantly developing nature of technology in our subject.

Assessment in Design & Technology and Food

Pupils are assessed termly throughout KS3 and an overview of each topic can be viewed here.  The KS4 examplar assessment materials can be found at the AQA link above.