Design and Technology
Design and Technology aims to provide pupils with an inspiring curriculum that offers creative opportunities to design, develop and manufacture concepts in a safe working environment. Utilising computer aided design programmes and CNC machinery, alongside the use of traditional tools and equipment, students will thrive on the experience of creating their own projects. Design and Technology at Middlewich High School provides pupils with the opportunities to use their imaginations, to push the boundaries of design, take design risks and become creative, practical and independent learners.
Pupils learn the foundations of Design and Technology through undertaking a range of units. These units aim to develop a strong knowledge base and confidence in the workshop to work with a range of software and manufacturing equipment, as well as more traditional tools. Students will develop knowledge of the processes involved in designing products, such as investigating new manufacturing processes involving a range of material areas including: textiles, electronics, new and smart materials, wood, metal, and plastics; these are all explored to design products for a specific context or need. Utilising an iterative process students will investigate, design, model, prototype, test and evaluate throughout KS3, incorporating the use of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing.
At KS4 students follow the Edexcel Design & Technology GCSE course. Students are taught to understand and apply iterative design processes, introduced at KS3, through which they explore, create and evaluate a range of outcomes in a variety of material areas. They should develop an awareness of practices from the creative, engineering and manufacturing industries. Through the critique of the outcomes of design and technology activity, both historic and present day, students should develop an understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world and understand that high-quality design and technology is important to the creativity, culture, sustainability, wealth and wellbeing of the nation and the global community. Design and technology at KS4 gives students opportunities to apply knowledge from other disciplines, including mathematics, science, art and design, computing and the humanities.
Learning maps – At MHS we use learning maps to support retrieval and reinforcement of knowledge. We use these in class and as homework, you may find it useful to see what is coming up through the year for your child in their year group. We are continuing to develop these and update them through the year so you may notice some subjects have uploaded the first term, future work will be added at the appropriate time.