Art, Design & Technology

Intent

Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.

^{Coco Chanel}

Curriculum Rationale: (Art, Design and Technology)

Powerful knowledge in Technology – Why do we teach these concepts?

Students experience a range of creative learning opportunities and develop a love for ‘making and doing’, underpinned by a deep understanding of how we can be inspired by the world of art, craft and design that has come before us. Fostering a confidence in their own ability to empower them to enter their chosen field with the skills and experiences to thrive.

Students learn to:

Use creativity and imagination to design and make outcomes that are creative, and may solve real world and relevant problems, including those encountered in everyday life

Build resilience and confidence to face challenges whilst raising their own self-esteem and developing personal interests

Be able to work within a range of contexts, considering their own and other’s needs, wants and values

Acquire a broad range of subject knowledge, whilst learning how to take risks and become resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizen in an increasingly technological world

Activities in our lessons provide a broad range of opportunities and contexts for students to understand and use the properties of materials to achieve functioning products creative outcomes. Many students may have never encountered processes or projects like these, whilst others may have experiences that they can draw upon from home, therefore, our curriculum is designed to ensure that it is accessible for all students, regardless of background or experiences. Our curriculum enables students to develop crucial life skills and express their own creativity, challenging students to push their boundaries and work to the highest standards regardless of their prior experiences at KS2. KS2 Design often focuses on teaching the basic principles of ‘design’, ‘make’ and ‘evaluate’ (DME), as an iterative framework cycle with a limited range of materials – which varies greatly depending upon individual school setting. By the end of KS3, students develop a deeper understanding and application of these core ‘DME’ skills, taking into consideration more complex ideas which guide designing, for example, user need, material properties, aesthetics and technical limitations.

At KS3 we follow the national curriculum structure by following the ‘DME’ cycle, however we go beyond these expectations with the breadth of opportunities available to our students. Through practical projects students understand the technical knowledge in context, and apply it to real life situations, rather than standalone theory lessons which can become a challenge to follow and apply. This deliberate, guided practice helps to embed learning to long term memory. KS3 also introduces a wider range of specialist processes, tools and equipment, introducing areas such as analysis, industrial processes, use of specialist machinery and health and safety. During KS3 students also consider the impact of key events in the context of individuals, society, and the environment, but also how problem solving is at the core of high-quality designerly thinking.

At KS4 students can opt to follow one of the following specialist areas of study:

Art, Craft and Design

Art: 3D Design

Art: Photography

Hospitality and Catering

Our KS4 courses build upon the core experiences of KS3, and further refine the principles of ‘DME’ to be more contextually specific. For example, rather than simply producing labelled design ideas, Students would be expected to support their idea development process to include working drawings, production planning, test pieces and modelling, parts-lists and so on. Regardless of specialism, students develop their use of specialist vocabulary and independence by investigating themes, experimenting and creating personal outcomes.

Curriculum Features - How do we embed the learning?

At its core, our ADT curriculum is experiential – the students learn by creating and ‘doing’, students therefore:

Understand and use the properties of processes and materials to achieve functioning solutions to a variety of problems. This is facilitated by specialist teachers, who ensure student health and safety, and can demonstrate subject mastery to the students.

Develop creativity and insight through the KS3 ‘DME’ process, by working on a range of thematic projects, evaluating, and refining their own ideas. Building towards a higher level of independence in KS4.

Develop their ability to think critically and consider the world of design that has gone before them, to inspire and guide them. This is appropriately scaffolded to ensure that students can access through writing frames and teacher modelling.

Transfer their creativity, innovation and improved self-confidence to other aspects of the curriculum and to benefit their daily lives, and the wider society around them.

Understanding is assessed regularly through many low-stakes approaches – verbal reasoning, simple quizzing in lessons, demonstration and refinement of technique, inferred reasoning and so forth. Formal assessments are sat regularly, with core knowledge retention evaluated. This gap-analysis underpins interventions and revision of content as appropriate.

How do we help students secure this knowledge in long term memory?

Quizzing for memory retrieval practice.

Increasing storage strength by slowly removing scaffolding, interleaving questions from different topics and asking questions of incrementing demand.

Targeted questioning in class.

Revision of key topics and learning cyclically to reinforce learning.

Core content in Knowledge Organisers is referred to and used.

Deliberate practice of skills to commit to long term memory.

Curriculum Enrichment – How do we link with other subjects and offer experiences?

We offer subject specific enrichment lunchtimes and after school. We offer the students trips and each year have 6-8 groups from Y7-10 partake in the STEM Rotary Tournament which is competing against 5 local schools within Norfolk-KLA always host the event.

We link with many other subjects, such as English; students are required to Evaluate their work and also use their speaking and listening skills in all tasks. Maths- Measuring skills, isometric drawings (3d shapes) analysing data. Science- Systems & Control. Art/History- Designers. Citizenship- Communication skills/Teamwork. Geography- Environmental impacts, Sustainability and recycling. ICT- Use of Microsoft Office, 2D design, Adobe Software for the student’s coursework tasks.

Our curriculum enables the student to become an independent creative individual as the building of skills, contextual reference and content ensures students understand the process of creating and working towards an individual, high-quality outcome. The curriculum prepares our students for A level and future creative pathways by ensuring they have all the formal and creative skills they require to access these courses as an independent learner.

What skills will I get with design and technology?

By studying art, food and 3D design, you will be able to build up your creativity, problem-solving, planning, and evaluation skills. Since many projects are done via group work, you’ll also gain communication and teamwork skills. Not to mention a great work out of your creativity bone!

What careers can I do with design and technology?

There are plenty! And we’re not kidding. Our subjects can set you up for a career in a wide variety of industries such as fashion, engineering, architecture, product design, practicing artist, information technology, careers in hospitality, and even education.

Popular careers for people with ADT qualifications include: artist, fashion designer, tailor, product designer, architect, software engineer, civil engineer, carpenter and chef.