The Design and Technology Faculty

The Design and Technology Faculty offers a range of very successful courses, where students make excellent progress in their learning and produce very strong results. It has very supportive and friendly staff who, between them, have a lot of experience and a diverse range of specialisms. Staff have well-resourced, purpose-built workshops, classrooms and preparation/resource areas, where the teaching, administration and technical staff are able to provide excellent support to one another.  

Curriculum

Key Stage 3

The current course, studied by all students, seeks to provide students with a sound foundation to understanding our modern technological world, as well as providing a solid introduction to the     values, knowledge, skills and understanding they will need if they go on to study Design and    Technology based subjects on offer at GCSE and beyond. 

The teaching modules cover Food, Textiles, Design Skills, Materials, Structures, Electrical and   Mechanical Systems, Graphical Skills, and CAD/CAM. 

Key Stage 4

Year 10 and 11 students follow AQA GCSE courses.  A wide range of options are available to    students allowing them to specialise in areas that they are interested in. These include Food           Preparation & Nutrition; DT: Textiles; DT: Electrical and Mechanical Systems; DT: Materials; DT   Engineering Materials, and Child Development. In addition, students have access to a range of     vocational courses, such as Construction Level 1, which is delivered in our purpose-built skill centre.

Results each year are very good with high numbers of students achieving GCSEs at grades 9-4 (A* - C).  

Key Stage 5

The Advanced Level Design Technology (AQA) courses are very popular, producing excellent    results and the majority of our students go on to pursue related subjects at degree level.  As well as Product Design, the Faculty also offers very successful course in Textiles. 

Resources

The Lower School has a purpose-built Technology Centre, comprising a suite of six very well-equipped and networked rooms supported by preparation areas and designed around a central ICT room, a team room and an inspirational display area.  Extensive teaching resources are available alongside excellent technical and administrative support.

The Upper School courses are also taught in well-resourced areas with adjacent computer suites, these have all either been recently built or modernised. There has been significant investment in computer networking and equipment in all classrooms; this includes a full suite of CNC lasers, routers, lathes and 3D printers.