Design and Technology

As a team the Design and Technology Department aims to provide a safe working environment where our pupils can broaden their experiences, learn about materials, manufacture processes and use resources to enhance their making skills.

The department has well-equipped wood, metal and plastics workshops that provides an excellent environment for working with a wide range of materials and processes. The department also boasts a number of Computer Aided Manufacture machines that help keep the pupils up to date with modern technology and manufacturing techniques.

Our design studio is fitted out with a complete PC suite of networked computers for the Computer Aided Design, word processing and the application of other computer based work in the department.

Curriculum

GCSE

The GCSE Design and Technology Course

The syllabus offered is Design and Technology:  Resistant Materials Technology.  Each year we have around thirty pupils in this year group that choose this subject. The course consists of two units.  Unit 1 focuses on Resistant Materials Technology theory and results in an exam at the end of Year 10.  Unit 2 is a Design and Make project which starts in the Summer Term in Form IV (Year 10) and finishes at the end of the Lent Term in Year 11.

Design and Technology – Assessment

Unit 1: Creative Design and Make Activities (60%)

Students will be expected to complete a design and make activity. These activities can be linked (combined design and make) or separate (design one product, make another). This coursework should be completed during normal timetable periods and prep time and should represent around 40 hours work, usually from the Summer Term in Form IV (Year 10) to the end of the Lent Term in Form V (Year 11).

(This unit is marked internally and externally moderated)

Unit 2: Knowledge and Understanding of Resistant Materials Technology (40%)

Students apply their knowledge and understanding of Resistant Materials Technology through multiple choice, short-answer and extended-writing type questions.  The exam is 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Design and Technology: Product Design A Level
Why study Design and Technology?

The Eduqas A level in Design and Technology offers a unique opportunity in the curriculum for learners to identify and solve real problems by designing and making products or systems.

Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. This specification encourages learners to use creativity and imagination when applying iterative design processes to develop and modify designs, and to design and make prototypes that solve real world problems, considering their own and others’ needs, wants, aspirations and values.

The specification enables learners to identify market needs and opportunities for new products, initiate and develop design solutions, and make and test prototypes. Learners should acquire subject knowledge in Design and Technology, including how a product can be developed through the stages of prototyping, realisation and commercial
manufacture.

Learners should take every opportunity to integrate and apply their understanding and knowledge from other subject areas studied during key stage 4, with a particular focus on Science and Mathematics, and those subjects they are studying alongside A level Design and Technology.

You will study the following topics in class and the workshop using a variety of up to date resources: text books, video, listening, articles, websites, songs, machines, processes etc.

Design and Technology (Product Design) is currently taught at Monmouth School for Boys.

Learners should take every opportunity to integrate and apply their understanding and knowledge from other subject areas studied during key stage 4, with a particular focus on Science and Mathematics, and those subjects they are studying alongside A level Design and Technology.

You will study the following topics in class and the workshop using a variety of up to date resources: text books, video, listening, articles, websites, songs, machines, processes etc.

A level Design and Technology (Product Design) is currently taught to girls and boys at Monmouth School for Boys.

Monmouth School for Boys Head of Department: Mr A White


Course content

Board: Eduqas   A level Syllabus Code: A602QS

Learners follow one endorsed route through this specification. At Monmouth School for Boys we only run this course for Product Design.

The subject content within section 2.1 and section 2.2 is presented under seven main headings:

  • Designing and innovation
  • Materials and components
  • Processes
  • Industrial and commercial practice
  • Product analysis and systems
  • Human responsibility
  • Public interaction

Within each area, the content is further divided into sub-headings, each with specified content and amplification. The structure of the content within the endorsed route is shown in the tables on the school intranet.

The specification content and assessment requirements are designed to ensure learners develop an appropriate breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding at an advanced level in design and technology.


Method of assessment

Component 1: Design and Technology in the 21st Century
Written examination: 3 hours (50% of qualification)

The examination includes a mix of structured and extended writing questions assessing learners’ knowledge and understanding of technical principles, designing and making principles, along with their ability to analyse and evaluate wider issues in design and technology.

Component 2: Design and Make Project
Non-exam assessment: approximately 80 hours (50% of qualification)

A sustained design and make project, based on a brief developed by the candidate, assessing the candidate’s ability to identify, investigate and outline.

Beyond Monmouth School for Boys

The Product Design course will help students develop a wide variety of skills including product analysis and research, communication and presentation of ideas, manufacturing processes, Computer Aided Designing and Manufacturing, testing and evaluation. It leads to careers in Engineering, Architecture, Industrial and Product Design, Graphic Design, Marketing, Three-Dimensional Design, Business Studies and Education.

Students gain an understanding and awareness of economic, political, social, aesthetic, cultural and environmental factors relevant to this subject area. They will also acquire skills and knowledge associated with the modern design and technological world in which we live.  Design is viewed as a dynamic process which considers human needs and values, society’s needs and how to respond to them.

Students will learn to apply a variety of appropriate technologies to design problems within production processes. They will also recognise the need to take account of the external pressures which constrain designers when bringing about positive change in products, systems and the environment.

  • Peter Barnes – Arkwright Scholar 2014
  • Hamish Fawcett – Arkwright Scholar 2014
  • Harry Ravenhill – WJEC Prize winner 2013
  • William Helme – WJEC Prize winner 2012
  • Philip Modro – WJEC Prize winner 2012
  • Calvin Kwok – WJEC Prize winner 2010
  • Price Shroff – Arkwright Scholar 2010
  • John Plummer – Arkwright Scholar 2007