At St Gregory's, our curriculum is designed to develop essential life skills through the exciting and ever-changing world of Design and Technology. Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject.
Students are encouraged to consider their own and others’ needs, wants and values through investigation and analysis. Then, using creativity and imagination, they will design and make products that solve relevant real-word problems, within a variety of contexts.
They acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. Pupils are encouraged to take risks with their design ideas and are taught to learn from mistakes, rather than avoid them - enabling them to become resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable individuals.
Through the evaluation of past and present Design and Technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the environment, and how it can contribute to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of society. Students are encouraged to understand the importance of designing products and systems for sustainability and diversity – guiding them to become responsible custodians of the world we live in.
The Design and Technology curriculum follows a 3-year plan which spans from year 7 to year 9. This curriculum allows us to maximise the opportunities for acquisition of knowledge and refinement of technical skills, whilst interacting with a range of materials. Each year, in addition to designing and making, students will develop and build on their understanding of the key concepts required for successful investigation, problem-solving and evaluation – thus embedding existing knowledge and enabling the successful introduction of new concepts in preparation for study at GCSE level.
Our detailed curriculum map outlines the knowledge studied.
We use the AQA examination board to assess students’ knowledge and understanding in each of the three principles:
The curriculum focuses on each of these principles in turn across the year in teaching units called sections:
Our detailed curriculum map outlines the knowledge studied.