Design Technology
"Innovate and Ignite"
At St Andrew's, the Design and Technology Department is committed to developing innovative, ambitious creators who can think outside the box, design imaginative solutions to real problems and ignite a passion to excel. Our curriculum intent is centred around the following key areas:
- Innovation and Creativity
In this faculty, students are creators and innovators. They regularly have the opportunity to design and create solutions to the problems assigned to them, encouraging them to approach every challenge with imagination, ambition and originality.
- Ambitious Aspiration
The curriculum sets a high standard, pushing students to develop professional-level skills and familiarity with industry-standard software and techniques. Students are encouraged to push the standards of their work to the highest levels and to take genuine pride in the quality of what they design and make.
- Independence and Resilience
Students are supported to aim high and to develop independence and resilience in their work. Through problem-solving skills such as abstraction, decomposition and sequencing, they learn to break down complex challenges and independently design effective solutions.
- Responsible Choices
Students are signposted to make good choices, and opportunities are facilitated throughout the curriculum to discuss the impact of our choices on ourselves and others. Students also have the opportunity to discuss and learn about other cultures, and are signposted to strategies which can support them should they need additional help.
By embracing these key areas, we strive to equip our students with the creativity, technical skill and resilience to become confident designers and makers, ready to meet the challenges of the modern world.
Key stage 3
In Year 7, students are introduced to the workshop and to the designing and making process, producing two outcomes: a wooden reindeer decoration and a bird feeder. Through these projects, students learn to work safely with tools and equipment while developing core practical skills such as measuring, marking out, cutting and finishing. Designing for a real user and purpose encourages students to think carefully about function as well as appearance, laying the foundations for the more challenging projects to come.
In Year 8, students build upon these foundations, producing two outcomes: a light-up photo frame and a passive amplifier. These projects extend students' practical skills into new areas, introducing electronic circuits and components alongside more precise construction techniques, and encouraging students to consider how a product's form, materials and function work together. Students are challenged to work with greater accuracy and independence, refining their outcomes to a higher standard of finish.
In Year 9, students draw together everything they have learned to design and produce one extended product: an automata. This sustained project gives students the opportunity to explore mechanisms and movement while managing a longer design-and-make process from initial ideas through to a finished, working outcome. Working with greater independence, students plan, test and refine their designs along the way, an experience which mirrors the demands of GCSE and prepares them for the challenges of Key stage 4.
Key stage 4
Students will study the core technical principles, specialist technical principles and design and making principles. They will then be assessed on the application of these skills through a non-examined assessment (NEA): a substantial design-and-make project which counts towards half of the final GCSE grade, with the remainder assessed through a written examination.
The NEA begins in the summer term of Year 10, when students respond to contextual challenges released by the exam board. Working with genuine independence, students will be required to identify and investigate design possibilities, produce design briefs and specifications, generate and develop design ideas, realise these through practical application of the principles they have studied, and evaluate the final design. Over the course of the project, students produce a design portfolio and a working prototype of their own creation, an authentic experience of the iterative design process used by professional designers, and the culmination of everything they have learned throughout their Design and Technology journey.
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