Year 7 D&T

Brief summary of the syllabus:

Work in Year 7 will focus on the key concepts of the National Curriculum that pupils need in order to deepen and broaden knowledge, skills and understanding. The key skills addressed are Designing and Making, Cultural Understanding, Creativity and Critical Evaluation A variety of exercises and projects will be set to meet these demands.

Design and Technology is organised around the National Curriculum Attainment Targets in Technology, and is structured progressively, with differentiated targets, to enable the most able pupils to reach level 7 or above by the end of Year 9.

What skills are being developed and examined?

Pupils will be taught to employ the following skills:

Research and Designing Skills

• Pupils are able to explore existing products and consider their use in the past and potential future evolution.
• Pupils are able to produce creative ideas and discuss ideas and their impact on the world and can design for user and designer needs, utilising a clear knowledge of materials and skills.
• Pupils should be able to recognise, analyse and understand basic systems in terms of Input, Process and Output and refer this knowledge to a basic electronic circuit.
• Pupils can critically evaluate products – both exisiting and their own in terms of context the product is to be used, their impact and how technological advance can provide opportunities for new design solutions.

Materials, Manufacturing and Making Skills

Pupils should be able to:

• Apply Health and Safety rules to their work environment and understand what is required to to keep themselves and their fellow workmates safe.
• Understand the theories, advantages and disadvantages of using CAD (Computer Aided manufacture) to create designs and understand and have used the basic principles of CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing).
• Confidently and safely use basic woodworking hand tools to cut and shape wood, including tenon saw, chisel and mallet.
• Confidently and safely use a variety of machine tools such as pillar drill, sanding disc, Hegner saw, vacuum former, CNC Router and soldering iron.

What can parents expect to see in classwork and homework specifically?

Homework is set on a weekly basis and may take a variety of forms, such as:

• Research exercises for example investigating dimensional constraints for a product or looking at an existing solution in depth. Answers should generally be in the form of detailed annotations. If this is not done, the pupil's work will have little value when it comes to revision.
• Product Analysis. Pupils may be asked to consider and comment on a products usefulness. Put together information from a sources to assist in their analysis and utilise this information to give a value judgement based on clear specifications.
• Research. Pupils will sometimes be asked to find out information from reference books, libraries, the Internet, or by questioning adults.
• Other tasks such as the production of drawings/designs based on key skills taught in lessons.

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What can parents do to help in this subject at this stage?

• Ensure Design and Technology homework is well ordered and presented, and sufficiently detailed.
• Discuss work with your son, concentrating particularly on why he has taken a particular direction with his design work or thinks a particular way about a product.
• Help him in gathering extra material, particularly for research assignments.
• Encourage analysis of the products, tools and materials he sees around him every day and to question why things look and behave the way they do.

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Setting and course schedule:

The allocated timetable time for Design in Year 7 is 4 periods per week. This is divided between Technology and Art, with groups working on five separate projects during each year: two Art and three Technology projects. This equates to 7.5% of timetable time. Pupils are not set in Year 7.

Pupils are taught on a 7-8 week "circus" and rotate through five separate members of staff. Lower school is structured by projects which enable the full range of National Curriculum Technology attainment targets to be achieved. In addition, a substantial proportion of Information Technology National Curriculum requirements are covered.

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Revision:

Revision will be guided by class teachers in relation to each Key Assessment Point. The boys must revise where this is appropriate. Feedback from Key assignments highlight particular areas of the curriculum that have been tested. From this a boy can determine for himself those areas in which he is confident and those in which he is weak. Pupils are then encouraged to formulate action plans (as part of the bespoke tutoring system in Year 7) which concentrate upon improving the weaker areas.

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Working towards Target National Curriculum Levels:

In the Autumn term, each pupil and his parents will be made aware of a target National Curriculum Level which he should be aiming to achieve by the end of the academic year. Progress towards this target will be reviewed at the end of each half-term and in the mid-year review of pupil progress, which is reported home in the Spring term. The criteria for each National Curriculum Level in Design & Technology can be read here.

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