Case study - St Philomena’s
School context (brief overview):
St Philomena’s is a Catholic, non-selective, comprehensive girls’ school for students aged 11-18 years. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in February 2022, a rating of “Good” was given. At the time of writing, 1462 students are on roll, of which 15.9% are eligible for FSM (Free School Meals). 2022-23 performance data can be viewed here.
Curriculum and planning for design and technology:
The D&T department at St Philomena’s base their curriculum around the National Curriculum framework and exam board specifications. In Years 7 and 8 (lower secondary), Design and Technology is offered via three material areas using a carousel model (this is where pupils spend a term on one area before moving onto the next and so on): Product Design, Food and Textiles. Year 7 & 8 students spend approximately a third of the year in each material area. In Year 9 (the final year of lower secondary), students can “specialise” in a material area of their choice, which is studied for the whole school year. As part of selecting their post-14 course of study (upper secondary), students can continue with their chosen specialism, opt for a different one, or cease studying Design and Technology entirely.
The rest of this summary focuses only on the curriculum arrangements for Product Design.
The Product Design curriculum is designed as a 5-year course. The learning in Years 7 and 8 provides students with enough basic skills to understand how products are designed and manufactured and to apply this within their own contexts. They are also aware of how design decisions can have an impact on society through the discussion of social and ethical issues. As students rotate in Years 7 and 8, there is only a limited amount of time in which to teach the skills required for a smoother transition to their post-14 study. The Year 9 material specialism commenced in September 2019 and provides an opportunity for students to develop their skills and knowledge within the material specialism area of their choice (Product Design or Food or Textiles).
Although pupils do learn Design and Technology in primary school, Product Design may be new to some pupils at the start of Year 7. As they will be learning in workshops and design spaces with unfamiliar equipment and machinery, Health and Safety practices are taught before the pupils begin to work with materials and use the space.
The teacher approach is along the lines of “throwing students into the deep-end”. What this means is that in Year 7, their first practical lesson takes place in the second week of the school year. The idea behind this is to increase pupils’ confidence so they can take risks, and resolve problems. Another way we do this is to help them appreciate success through failure and embrace resilience.
One of the tasks set in Year 7 is to make a pre-designed desk-tidy from wood that has deliberate mistakes engineered within the design. As students learn to use the equipment, they find out how common mistakes within a design need to be identified at an early stage to avoid disappointment during final manufacture.
In Year 8 pupils are introduced to plastic and electronics. Here they are accumulating more knowledge that builds and expands on their previously learnt knowledge from Year 7. Also, we give them more space in the design aspect. Whereas in Year 7, they modified an existing design, in Year 8 the design brief is more open allowing them to experiment with ideas and take some risks.
As Year 9 pupils spend the whole year in Product Design there is more scope to expand the contexts to include areas like engineering and architecture. We also introduce some career opportunities that relate to Design and Technology. Our curriculum plans link to different careers. For example, the “Security” unit of work links with electronic and mechanical engineering, the “Compact Living” unit to interior design and architecture.
