Design & Technology

KS3 Design & Technology Curriculum Intent (Years 7–8)

At Key Stage 3, our Design and Technology curriculum aims to develop confident, creative, and capable learners who can design, make, and evaluate products across a range of material areas. Through a structured rotation system including Food and Nutrition, CAD/CAM, Workshop, and Textiles, students gain a broad and balanced foundation of practical skills, technical knowledge, and design thinking.

Our intent is to ensure that all students, regardless of prior experience, build the core competencies required to successfully access any Design and Technology GCSE pathway. Each rotation is carefully planned to focus on essential skills, including safe working practices, accurate measuring and marking out, iterative design, and critical evaluation.

Students are encouraged to become independent problem-solvers who can respond creatively to design briefs, consider the needs of users, and make informed decisions about materials, tools, and processes. Across all specialisms, we embed key principles such as sustainability, functionality, and aesthetics, ensuring students understand the wider impact of design in the real world.

The curriculum is sequenced to allow students to revisit and build upon skills over time, increasing in complexity from Year 7 to Year 8. By the end of Key Stage 3, students will have developed:

• A secure understanding of the design process (investigate, design, make, evaluate)
   
• Competence in a wide range of tools, equipment, and digital technologies
   
• The ability to work safely and independently in different environments
   
• Confidence in applying creativity and technical knowledge to solve problems
   
• An awareness of how design and technology influences everyday life and future careers

Ultimately, our KS3 curriculum prepares students to make informed choices at Key Stage 4 and equips them with the transferable skills needed for success in Design and Technology and beyond.

Design & Technology KS3-4

Our Design & Technology curriculum (KS3 into KS4) empowers all students to become creative, confident and socially responsible designers, understanding how sustainable, ethical and inclusive solutions can shape the world around them. 

Students learn to think like designers by investigating real problems, making informed material and system choices, and using iterative modelling and evaluation to refine their ideas.

Knowledge and skills are sequenced; with KS3 building foundations in core principles and practical capability so students can feel confident in meeting the increasing demands of KS4. 

We ensure ambition, joy and equity through meaningful design challenges, hands-on making, user contexts and structured support that enables students to succeed. 

Our curriculum reflects our school’s commitment to purposeful, relevant design experiences that make learning authentic and accessible. 

By the end of the course, students will be able to independently design, create and evaluate innovative, user-centred products, demonstrating technical confidence, creativity, resilience and responsibility for their impact on people, society and the environment.