Miss F McDowell – Food Technology Teacher
Mr P Greathead – DT Teacher
Mrs G Eastaugh – Food Technology Teacher
Miss A Skidmore –DT and Graphics teacher
Mr E Hopwood – DT Technician
Mr C Smith – Food Technology Technician
Design and Technology plays an important part in our lives. It controls and affects much of what we do. Designing is an activity which uses a wide range of experiences, knowledge and skills to find the best solution to a problem.
The National Curriculum promotes the need to develop within students “their capacity to adapt and respond flexibly to a changing world”.
At OCA Design and Technology helps to develop in young people such qualities as imagination, inventiveness, resourcefulness and flexibility. Industry and commerce need people with such qualities and skills in the 21st Century.
Designers and technologists work in almost every area of life, food, textile design, product design, graphic design, interior design, engineering design and environmental design. Each area requires a different type of knowledge, but they all involve a similar design process.
Rationale:
The Design Technology department offers a new and exciting curriculum which is new to the majority of students as they move into secondary school.
Broken down into three sections of design, make and evaluate it allows students to use new tools, equipment and machinery as well as learning the skills necessary to continue the various branches of the subject into KS4. Each branch is condensed into 12 weeks just giving students a snippet of what they can expect later on.
Over years 7 and 8 the theme is life beyond the classroom.
FOOD: The idea of healthy eating is important in modern day life and so the idea of a balanced diet is explored with all students. They will be taught how easy it is to prepare meals on a budget and the facts of how much sugar really goes into those soft drinks.
PRODUCT DESIGN: This area develops the idea of the importance of saving money as well as keeping items safe and well looked after. The use of the 6R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recover, Repair, Rethink and Refuse) is discussed and made aware of the importance of not throwing things away if they are not broken. The skills gained in product design will allow students to create things at home, whether it be homes for their pets, shelving or on a larger scale garden sheds!
ICT: Students are taught how to use software by developing skills in the software such as Excel, Photoshop, Publisher, Dreamweaver, Word, Movie Maker, Scratch, Python, app inventor. All of these skills are taught based around a theme of preparing students for the future, looking at how these software are used in the real world and how the students may use them in the future. They are taught how to write code and create websites during this they will look at jobs that can come from code and creating websites, the money people are making and why it is important they can be a creator of ICT not just a user.
They are also taught how to be advanced users of the software that they have used such as Excel, Word, Publisher, fireworks, Photoshop. Again we look at where they are used in the real world give examples of businesses using them, get students to think about businesses that may not be obvious so why would a hairdressers use excel. Students then use all of these software as a business would an example would be creating a spreadsheet model for an event where they have to calculate the money that is being spent, what they will receive, how much they will make and then decide if they want to change any costings.
Our curriculum in years 9, 10 and 11 reflects the interests of students. They study their chosen option for 3 hours in year 9 and 2 hours a week in years 10 and 11.
Below are the courses we currently deliver within the department.
| Year 11 | Qualification | Exam Board | Course Title |
| Graphics | GCSE | AQA | Art & Design Graphic Communications |
| 3D Design | GCSE | AQA | Art & Design 3D Design |
| Industry Skills | BTEC X2 | Edexcel | BTEC Level 2 Engineering / BTEC Level 2 Construction |
| Hair & Beauty | BTEC | VCTC | Level 2 Hair & Beauty |
| Food | Level 2 | Vcert | Cooking and Nutrition |
| Year 10 | |||
| Graphics | GCSE | AQA | Art & Design Graphic Communications |
| 3D Design | GCSE | AQA | Art & Design 3D Design |
| Industry Skills | BTEC | Edexcel | Technical Award in Engineering Level 2 |
| Hair & Beauty | BTEC | VCTC | Level 2 Hair & Beauty |
| Food | Technical Award | Edquas/WEJC | Level1/2 Hospitality and Catering A |
| Year 9 | |||
| 3D Design | GCSE | AQA | Art & Design 3D Design |
| Industry Skills | BTEC | Edexcel | Technical Award in Engineering Level 2 |
| Hair & Beauty | BTEC | VCTC | Level 2 Hair & Beauty |
| Food | Technical Award | Edquas/WEJC | Level1/2 Hospitality and Catering A |
Each course consists of a combination of theory and practical work with assessment in both areas. We
offer a combination of GCSE and level 2 technical qualifications from a variety of exam boards- selecting the best courses available for our students.
The technology department has an enrichment platform that all students can get involved in. The program includes:
Marking and Feedback – Within the faculty we aim to provide all students with timely, high quality feedback on the work they are producing in lesson and at home. Our marking should provide information regarding how well students performed during a particular piece of work, their progress to date and feedback on their effort and AtL. Students should then respond in a positive manner to this by improving their work to ensure they make further progress. This process should ensure all students make progress and address misconceptions in their learning.
Homework – We aim to set homework that stretches and challenges students so they make further progress. Homework should be used to allow students to recap and consolidate their learning as well as acquire more knowledge.
At KS3 students are on a rotation of 12 -14 weeks. Students will complete a mini knowledge test/ spelling test between weeks 4-5 which will be peer or self-assessed. Teachers will deep mark students’ work using an assessment piece at the end of the rotation in week 8. Students will be given the chance to improve their work. This marking and feedback can be presented in a number of ways depending on the subject. Marking must be clear and in line with the whole school policy. Student response must take place.
Homework will take the form of a projects or research that will allow the students to develop independent learning skills and will feed into the lessons. There will be the equivalent of 30 minutes’ homework a week for the course of the rotation. This may be several short homework sessions or 1 or 2 longer ones.
We will deep mark every 8 lessons and light mark every 8 lessons. These two forms of assessments will alternate so students will receive an assessment (marking or test) every 4 lessons. The deep mark will take place as a lesson ensuring the students understand the full mark scheme and how to achieve their target grade or higher. Following this deep mark during the lesson, students will respond to targets set to improve their work. The teacher will then check these improvements and where appropriate, re grade work 2 weeks later.
There will be a second lighter mark every 8 lessons. This will use the mark scheme and targets indicating to students where they are presently at and how to improve. This marking and feedback can be presented in a number of ways. There are two department marking sheet which staff can use if they wish. Marking must be clear and in line with the whole school policy. Student response must take place. There will be no green pen but evidence will show students acting upon the advice set by the teacher.
As in line with the qualification guidelines marking takes place when the assessment is submitted as a complete piece of controlled assessment work. Due to this ongoing policy marking is prohibited from the exam board. Each assignment is allowed one piece of formative feedback.
During the taught part of the course, classwork will be marked every 2 weeks and feedback given to ensure students understand how to gain a higher grade. Improvement sessions will be scheduled to allow the students to re produce the work with the improvements.
We will deep mark every 8 lessons and light mark every 8 lessons. These two forms of assessments will alternate so students will receive an assessment (marking or test) every 4 lessons. The deep mark will take place following an assessment, essay, homework or exam question(s). Following this deep mark, students will respond to targets set to improve their work. The teacher will then check these improvements and where appropriate, re grade work. There will be a second lighter mark every 8 lessons. This will use the mark scheme and targets indicating to students where they are presently at and how to improve. This marking and feedback can be presented in a number of ways. There are two department marking sheet which staff can use if they wish. Marking must be clear and in line with the whole school policy. Student response must take place. There will be no green pen but evidence will show students acting upon the advice set by the teacher.
Homework will be set in the form of revision. In year 11, students have weekly examination questions; their homework is to prepare adequately for these tests. In years 9 and 10, students will be expected to revise and prepare for the assessments taking place every other week.
Homework will vary depending on the subject. It will be normally issued every two weeks unless a larger project has been set. The students will receive the equivalent of 1 hour per week.
