The Design and Technology department is part of the Arts Mark gold awarded Creative Arts faculty at Haggerston. The subject prepares students to participate in tomorrow’s rapidly changing technologies. It provides excellent opportunities for students to develop and apply value judgements of an aesthetic, economic, moral, social, and technical nature both in their own designing and whilst evaluating the work of others.
We encourage students to think and intervene creatively to improve quality of life. Making products with creativity and originality in a variety of practical activities.
Students learn how to take risks and so become more resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable. Students develop their cultural capital through a critical understanding of the impact of design and technology on daily life and their relevance in the wider world.
Curriculum
Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Using creativity and imagination, students design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts drawing on knowledge acquired in subjects such as mathematics, science, computing and art.
At KS3 (years 7-9) the subject operates on a rotational basis with students studying Product Design, Cooking and Nutrition and Textiles throughout the year. Through this, students acquire knowledge and master skills needed to make progress in the programmes of study set out in the National Curriculum and exam specifications.
All of our projects are centred around an iterative design process of ‘design, make, evaluate’ with students encouraged to continually test and develop their ideas as they would do in industry; thus preparing learners to become critical and creative designers, engineers and consumers of the future.
The broad and rich range of activities that we offer help students to understand and appreciate the design and manufacture of existing products, making them more discriminating purchasers. It helps them to be creative in their approach to work, develop an ability to solve problems, both practically and cognitively. It also encourages them to develop their creative skills and know how to use digital technologies in designing and creating products.
At GCSE, students are given the option to continue study of the subject via GCSE Design & Technology (EDUQAS), GCSE Food Preparation & Nutrition (EDUQAS) and GCSE Art Textiles (AQA). In Design & Technology, students will look at important issues that affect design in the wider world such as sustainability, global issues and user-centred design, in Art Textiles students are able to experiment with a range of materials and techniques through the exploration of artists and designers and in Food Preparation and Nutrition, students learn the about the science in food, the nutritional content of ingredients and their effect on the body.
Extra-Curricular
Design & Technology offer a rich variety of extracurricular activities throughout the year ranging from cooking clubs, and making tennis bats to gallery and museum visits, workshops and competitions and an annual exhibition of student work.
Cooking & Nutrition
Cooking and Nutrition is taught within our KS3 curriculum as part of the Design and Technology programme. In Y7 and Y8 students will follow a 9 week scheme of work. In Y9 students can choose two areas of DT including Cooking & Nutrition to study for 2 18 week projects.
Instilling a love of cooking in pupils is our goal as it will open a door to one of the great expressions of human creativity. Learning how to cook is a crucial life skill that enables pupils to feed themselves and others affordably and well, now and in later life.