“Product Design helps pupils become aware of the signi­fic­ance and impact of Design and Tech­no­logy on their lives, and in doing so enables them to develop a crit­ical appre­ci­ation of qual­ity manu­fac­tured products.”

Our depart­ment has:

  • Two highly exper­i­enced and success­ful special­ist teachers.
  • A bright, colour­ful and well organ­ised dedic­ated depart­ment compris­ing a multi-craft work­shop, classroom and resource area.
  • Exam results well above the national and school average.
  • Courses at AS and A Level as well as GCSE
  • Enthu­si­astic pupils who respect the department.
  • ICT and the use of the Inter­net incor­por­ated into the teach­ing of this subject.

D T Product Design at Key Stage 3 -  Years 7, 8 and 9

What is DT Product Design?

“Design is import­ant because if it was not designed it could not be made” Edward aged 10

The aims and object­ives of the Design and Tech­no­logy Depart­ment relate directly to those of the School and to the require­ments of the National Curriculum. The Depart­ment offers, to all pupils, courses whereby they study resist­ant and compli­ant mater­i­als, control systems and graph­ics. The concept of Product Design is cent­ral to the work.

This subject is holistic in nature. Focused tasks are under­taken. Pupils exper­i­ence the whole design process identi­fy­ing needs and oppor­tun­it­ies, idea gener­a­tion, plan­ning, making, disas­sembly and eval­u­at­ing. Prac­tical skills must be mastered before the concepts of total product design can be under­taken. This is achieved through a consid­er­able amount of work­shop prac­tice early on in the School to develop an aware­ness of how products can be made in the first instance. This combines with the vital role of safety and personal organ­isa­tion that must be real­ised in any prac­tical environment.

What will your child study?

Year 7 students will take a 12-week course comple­men­ted by Food Tech­no­logy and ICT

Pupils begin by design­ing and making kitchen utensils in wood from free form shapes. They progress to make a four string mari­on­ette puppet which uses a range of resist­ant and compli­ant mater­i­als. The concept of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manu­fac­ture is made clear by its applic­a­tion during the course. Qual­ity of finish is emphas­ised through­out the entire time pupils are in the depart­ment and on every project undertaken

Years 8 and 9 also follow a similar 12-week pattern

Total product design to the point of sale includ­ing pack­aging, is cent­ral to the work carried out. As making skills are developed, so the concept of detailed design can be intro­duced to advanced levels

How will your child be assessed?
Your child’s class­work and subject know­ledge is regu­larly assessed.
Your child will actively assess their own work as part of the eval­u­ation in the Design Process.
The nature of this subject natur­ally lends itself to allow­ing pupils of all abil­it­ies to work at their own levels.
For some pupils extra indi­vidual help is at hand by the use of support staff in addi­tion to the class teacher

The Design and Tech­no­logy Depart­ment does not set home­work on a regu­lar basis. The nature of the subject and the way it is taught determ­ines that home­work is only set when considered appro­pri­ate for the work in hand. This is often indi­vidual to the pupil concerned.

GCSE DT Product Design


“Have noth­ing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beau­ti­ful” William Morris

GCSE Product Design students learn about mater­i­als, manu­fac­tur­ing processes and tech­no­lo­gies and how they are used to design and make products.

Students must demon­strate their own design and tech­no­logy capab­il­ity by combin­ing prac­tical skills with know­ledge and under­stand­ing in order to design and make qual­ity products in quantity.

Students will acquire and apply know­ledge, skills and under­stand­ing through:
Analys­ing and eval­u­at­ing products and processes.
Under­tak­ing focused tasks using a range of mater­i­als, compon­ents, processes and tech­niques.
Devel­op­ing ideas, plan­ning and produ­cing products which meet the needs of the user.
Consid­er­ing how past and present design and tech­no­logy affects soci­ety.
Recog­nising the moral, cultural and envir­on­mental issues related to design and technology.

The course is assessed through both exam­in­a­tion and coursework.

Unit 1: Writ­ten Paper 45551. The 2 hour exam, which repres­ents 40% of the over­all grade, will test students’ know­ledge and under­stand­ing of mater­i­als and compon­ents, tech­no­lo­gical devel­op­ments, sustain­ab­il­ity issues, human factors and also their abil­ity to analyse and eval­u­ate exist­ing commer­cial products.

Unit 2: Design and Making Prac­tice 45552. Candid­ates are also required to submit a course­work project, which accounts for the remain­ing 60% of the final grade. This consists of a single design and make activ­ity selec­ted from a range of board set tasks. This will be completed in year 11 and must include a 3-dimensional product and a support­ing design folder. Students must identify a need or prob­lem and after research­ing and analys­ing the task, produce a specific­a­tion and gener­ate a range of possible solu­tions. The best idea will then be developed in detail. Students will learn how to commu­nic­ate their ideas and plan for manu­fac­ture. Once the product has been made students must test and eval­u­ate their designs. Some expense is incurred in making products but this is determ­ined by the students’ design ideas.

Specific­a­tion: AQA Design and Tech­no­logy: Product Design 4555
Click here to down­load a copy of the specific­a­tion for this subject.

The demands of this subject should not be under­es­tim­ated. Students must be well motiv­ated, able to gener­ate ideas and work inde­pend­ently. This is an enorm­ously reward­ing subject, but only suit­able for those who enjoy a creat­ive challenge.

AS and A Level DT Product Design


“Form follows func­tion - that has been misun­der­stood. Form and func­tion should be one, joined in a spir­itual union.”       Frank Lloyd Wright

Do you like to make things?  Do you have a sense of style?  Do you appre­ci­ate products that look good and work well?

A Level Product Design is an excit­ing oppor­tun­ity to develop prac­tical making skills and an under­stand­ing of design theory. However the demands of the subject should not be under-estimated. Students complet­ing this course success­fully will be skil­ful makers able to select and work with a wide range of graphic and resist­ant mater­i­als. However they will also have a broad under­stand­ing of design theory which includes elements of psycho­logy, philo­sophy, art, ICT, busi­ness stud­ies, chem­istry, phys­ics, history, maths and more.

Product Design aims to prepare students to live and work in a rapidly chan­ging tech­no­lo­gical world. The subject requires students to become inde­pend­ent and creat­ive prob­lem solv­ers, able to identify needs, wants and oppor­tun­it­ies and in response gener­ate original design propos­als. Students are required to design products to meet a commer­cial need and consider all aspects of the design and market­ing of their products. Design­ing for quant­ity produc­tion rather than one-off products is an import­ant aspect of the course. It is expec­ted that students will make full use of our excel­lent ICT facil­it­ies includ­ing CAD/CAM and graphic software.

Course Require­ments
To be success­ful at A level, students will need to be well motiv­ated, creat­ive and have a genu­ine interest in design. They must possess enquir­ing minds and the abil­ity to recog­nise poten­tial for new or improved products. They must have the abil­ity to research inde­pend­ently, to organ­ise, analyse and present their find­ings using a wide range of commu­nic­a­tion tech­niques. Students should have the skill and confid­ence to commu­nic­ate and develop design ideas in graphic form and through model­ling in a range of materials.

This A level course is inten­ded to develop skills acquired at GCSE, so those with no previ­ous exper­i­ence of the subject are likely to find the work extremely challenging.

Assess­ment

At AS

Unit 1 – PROD1 Mater­i­als, Compon­ents and Applic­a­tion
50% of AS, 25% of A Level - 2 hour writ­ten paper
In prepar­a­tion for a two-hour exam in June, students will study the follow­ing topics:
Mater­i­als and Compon­ents
Design and Market Influ­ences
Processes and Manufacture

Unit 2 – PROD2 Learn­ing Through Design­ing and Making
50% of AS, 25% of A Level - Course­work – approx 50 hours
This unit is a ‘design and make’ activ­ity. Students must identify a prob­lem or gap in the market and in response, design and make a 3D product includ­ing support­ing graph­ics, pack­aging and promo­tion. A design folder must be produced includ­ing evid­ence of research, analysis, idea gener­a­tion and devel­op­ment, plan­ning, test­ing and evaluation.

This unit is intern­ally assessed then reviewed by an external moder­ator using the follow­ing criteria:
Context and Object­ives.
Plan of Action and Clari­fic­a­tion of Prob­lem.
Devel­op­ment of Design Proposal.
Manu­fac­ture and Model­ling.
Conclu­sions, Eval­u­ations and Recom­mend­a­tions.
Commu­nic­a­tion and Presentation.

At A2

The A2 Qual­i­fic­a­tion is very similar in struc­ture to the AS. In the second year of the course students will under­take two further units

Unit 3 – PROD3 Design and Manu­fac­ture
This unit is taught as Unit 1 through theory lessons and also assessed by a 2 hour exam­in­a­tion and is worth 25% of the A Level.
Based primar­ily on Design and Manu­fac­ture and consist­ing of two sections
Candid­ates answer three ques­tions: one ques­tion from three in each section,plus a final ques­tion from either section.
Includes synop­tic assessment

Unit 4 – PROD4 Design and Making Prac­tice
This unit requires students to design and manu­fac­ture a commer­cially viable product  and is worth 25% of the A Level
Course­work – approx 60 hours
Writ­ten (or elec­tronic) design folder
Manu­fac­tured outcome
Candid­ates submit evid­ence of a simple, substan­tial design­ing and making activity

Specific­a­tion: AQA Design and Tech­no­logy  - Product Design: 3D Design AS 1551  A 2551
Click here to down­load a copy of the specific­a­tion for this subject.

Options after A Level Product Design
Upon success­ful comple­tion of this course students will have the capab­il­ity and confid­ence to produce designs and make proto­types using the same proced­ures and prin­ciples used in industry. It is a signi­fic­ant academic achieve­ment, provid­ing an excel­lent found­a­tion for further study. Students may choose to progress to Higher or Further Educa­tion courses in Product Design, but the course is also recog­nised by employ­ers, colleges and univer­sit­ies as good prepar­a­tion for subjects such as Art, Busi­ness, Manu­fac­tur­ing, Engin­eer­ing, Archi­tec­ture, Model-making or Graphic Design.