Enabling active participancy

Design & technology is an exciting and stimulating area of the school curriculum; one that has changed considerably in the past and will continue to change in response to the needs of young people in an ever increasing technological society.

The main way that students learn in design & technology is through designing and making projects. Students have to generate ideas for a product to meet a particular need or want, and develop those ideas to the point where they have a clear specification and designs for the product. Then they make it and evaluate it against the specification. The type of product can vary from the simple (when students are young and inexperienced) to the complex (when the products use modern technologies both in the way they work and the method of manufacture).

At KS3 students work with a wide range of materials – food, textiles, graphic media, resistant materials, plus mechanical, electrical, and electronic components. At KS4 students can choose to concentrate on a particular 'focus' area – food technology, textile technology, product design, electronic products or systems and control.

Teaching this way is demanding but very rewarding as the students make real progress in becoming highly capable.

Through this approach the student is transformed from a passive recipient into an active participant. "Not so much studying technology as being a technologist."