Food 

The Year 7 course is designed to introduce/reinforce the following:

A wide range of practical skills

Use of cooker

Washing up hygienically

Rubbing in, i.e. scones, pizza, crumble, pastry

Preparation of various fruits/vegetables.  Claw/bridge ‘grip’

Dishes made from scratch

Use of everyday kitchen and food preparation equipment

Food storage

How to work effectively as part of a large group

Personal organisation skills

How to follow written, verbal and practical instruction

How to annotate recipes whilst watching practical demonstrations

Some problem solving

Healthier food choices and options.

Eatwell Guide

Food hygiene and safety.  Food storage, shopping for food – seasonal costs etc.

Evaluation of practical outcome and personal performance (smiley face charts)

Aesthetic development

Students need to bring the correct ingredients/equipment to practical lessons.  These are specified in scheme of work/recipes.  In Food lessons everybody brings their own ingredients and receptacles for taking food home in.  This is due to the fact that personal organisation and food selection is fundamental in the Curriculum and also GCSE Examination Specifications.  We have a very varied and diverse community at Kendrick with a multitude of special dietary requirements; food selection is therefore a very personal thing. 

Product Design 

In Design and Technology students combine practical and technological skills with creative thinking to design and make products and systems that meet human needs.  Over the period of the course students will learn to think creatively to design and make products intended to improve the quality of life.

We challenge any notion of gender inequalities and stereotypes in careers in technical and practical subjects such as Engineering, Product Design, Science and Architecture and aim to provide the necessary skills and self-confidence to enable students to apply for a range of careers and university courses.

The Year 7 course is intended to help students make the transition from primary school to the more sophisticated workshop environment of a secondary school.  The emphasis is on workshop practice and the safe and skilled use of tools and equipment.  The types of equipment the students are trained to use are: Hand tools – tenon saw, hack saw, hammers, screwdrivers and hand drills.  Power tools – disc sander, pillar drill, scroll saw, hotwire bender, and hand held power drills.

The current project is designed to introduce the use of tools, equipment and safe workshop procedure in a gradual and progressive manner.  This enables the students to gain confidence and skills of accuracy before progressing to more advanced and powerful machinery.

Materials introduced; woods – softwood and man-made boards, thermos-plastic polymers and their applications and manipulation (including hotwire bender).

Textiles 

The Year 7 Textiles course includes the following:

A wide range of practical skills, design development, knowledge of basic textiles theory and health and safety, learning through practical demonstrations and 

examples, following verbal and written instructions. Working as a group, paired work, enterprise skills etc.

The design process in Year 7 involve researching the natural world, taking key shapes from photographic images of nature and creating simple shapes that can be stencilled onto fabric.  They have to consider the scale of shapes (so not all shapes are the same size).  They also have to scale up their designs.  They consider different ways of creating a pattern repeat across an area of fabric and trial these variations.  They are not simply drawing a design, but have to remember that their design will be applied onto fabric using paint stiks and brushes.

Introduction to sewing machine

Introduction to Health and Safety in Textiles

Design process

Stencilling

Embellishment

Cushion Construction

Food 

The Year 8 course builds on work carried out in Year 7, extending knowledge and skills.  It is designed to introduce/reinforce the following:

How to do ‘proper’ written evaluations (as opposed to ‘smiley face charts’ used as an introduction in Year 7.

How to use the Nutrients programme to help with costings (a GCSE requirement).

Yeast and bread cookery.

An extended piece of work which makes students think about the Design of a new loaf of bread.

AFL.

A sequence of practicals where students use all the pieces of electrical equipment and how to use the safely, producing well presented end results. (Microwave, Kenwood, stick liquidizer, food processor, hand held mixer).

Further stand-alone practicals to produce savoury products and ensure students can tell when, for instance, potatoes are cooked.

Seasonal cookery (i.e. Summer term) – preparation of numerous fruit and vegetables to enhance skills and provide nutritional dishes (healthier eating and healthy options) fresh fruit salad, potato salad, pasta salad, chickpea salad, summer salad and simple homemade vinaigrette, coleslaw, Greek salad and honey mustard dressing.

As I see students every for a year, providing skills, knowledge and understanding are all substantially extended.  It is a good precursor to GCSE.

Product Design 

In Year 8 students have two main projects and a number of smaller projects intended to cover a range of topics.

Project One Electronic Night-light

This project is designed to introduce students to simple circuit construction and involves soldering to make connections and assemble components to form an LED light sensitive device that can be used as a night-light for children and including designing a suitably themed shade.  Students will have to consider the importance of correct polarity when connecting components, Health and Safety implications of soldering and the principles of how a circuit functions including flow charts.

Project Two “Natural” Jewellery

The project is designed to introduce students to designing, CAD/CAM, metal casting and packaging.

Students will use natural forms to stimulate ideas for pendant jewellery and then draw up their designs.  After revising the designs using a CAD program the students will cast designs from molten pewter into their moulds which are cut using CAM (2D Design and CNC router/milling machine).  The rough cast is then polished and finished with fittings to make pendants for their chosen market.  Packaging will consist of a blister pack wrapped around the pendant and a backing sheet.  The students will have to consider basic principle of marketing and functions of packaging to appeal to their target market and then go on to use Photoshop to manipulate  images and text to create their design for the backing sheet and graphic identity for their design company that will produce and market the product.

Technical drawing - Students will learn and practice a range of drawing systems including perspective and isometric to enable them to ‘visualise’ and communicate their design ideas.

Structures - Students will investigate the use of structures by building a model bridge and then testing it to destruction to evaluate the most effective structural forms.

Textiles 

The Year 8 Textiles course includes the following:

A wide range of practical skills, design development, knowledge of textiles theory and revision of Health and Safety, learning through practical demonstrations and examples following verbal and written instructions.  Working as a group, paired work, enterprise skills, planning skills.

The design process in Year 8 is much freer than in Year 7.  It involves researching nightwear for their age group in terms of style, pattern, decoration, features, fabric and component parts.  They choose and purchase their own fabric and once the shorts or trousers are made they can embellish them further.  They then make a drawstring bag to co-ordinate with their p.j. bottoms which they decorate with felt fabric and beads, buttons, etc.  They then carry out research into upcycling a T-shirt or vest top and they create designs which they could use on their own garments that they provide.  They are able to use the sewing machine, various colour techniques such as tie-dye, stencilling, heat transfers and so on.  They can also add decorative components to their top.  They have to consider the various techniques possible to them as they draw up their designs.

Revision of sewing machine

Revision of Health and Safety in Textiles.

Design Process

Construction of Shorts

Additional items.  

Food 

The Year 9 Scheme of Work further builds on skills and knowledge acquired during Years 7 and 8.  By Year 9 students should be very competent in this subject area with a vast number of aspects already covered which is largely focused on food preparation and safety in the kitchen (electrical and other equipment plus food hygiene).

Additional savoury dishes are introduced to provide meals with an ‘International’ theme.  These showcase further, more complex skills such as sauce making, pastry etc.  ‘Savoury’ products complies with the Government guidelines re. Food teaching in Schools.

Students are encouraged to choose healthier ingredients and are introduced further to the idea that dishes can be adapted to provide these options (i.e. toppings for Shepherd’s pie, use of lower fat mince etc.).

Students will embark upon a Brief entitled ‘Healthy International Dishes’ where they have the freedom to choose their own savoury International Healthier products to make over a five lesson ‘session’.  Products will need to be evaluated, including profile charts and use of the Nutrients Programme to ascertain their Nutritional value and cost to produce.  All items used must be made from scratch – no bought in sauces, pastry etc.  Also included within the Brief will be consideration of seasonality, use of local produce and food miles, sustainability, the wider environment, food allergies/intolerances/ethical issues etc.

The notion of ‘International Cuisine’ plus seasonality, sustainability etc. is all part of the new Food Preparation and Nutrition GCSE so this course in Year 9 dovetails quite nicely into GCSE should the students choose it as an option.

By the end of Year 9, even if students do not take the subject further, they will be fully equipped for their future lives.

‘Free Choice’ dishes (from those cooked in Years 7, 8 and 9) will be allowed in the Summer term should there be any time left.

Product Design 

In Year 9 students are required to apply their skills and knowledge to design and make a working clock design.

Students are given a very specific design opportunity and have to regard the whole project as a ‘real’ one and need to refer to their client’s brief and requirements.  The project is intended to introduce students to designing and making a product for a situation and target market.  Initial research will lead to a Design Specification.  Designing and modelling in 3D to develop and test out the idea is essential with evaluation of the model before producing a cutting list and commencing construction.  The product will need packaging with accompanying graphics.

By the end of the projects the students will have an understanding of:

Importance of a design brief and specification,

Research to produce a mood sheet,

Use of isometric to sketching ideas,

How to draw planometric and scale drawings,

Application of renderings to visualise ideas,

Use of TechSoft 2D Design to output their shapes using CAD/CAM,

Importance of design development and modelling,

Basic principle of marketing and functions of packaging

Textiles 

The Year 9 Textiles course includes the following:

A wide range of practical skills, design development, knowledge of textiles theory and revision of Health and Safety, learning through practical demonstrations and examples, following verbal and written instructions.  Working as a group, paired work, enterprise skills, self-assessment.

The design process in Year 9 is different to Year 7 and 8.  It involves group research in the theme of ‘All Things British’ and they create design ideas for the decorative element to their bag.  They apply the decoration to their bag using the technique of appliqué and have to think about the layering of fabric shapes to achieve the image they want.  They also have to consider the scale of their design and have to scale up their final design.  They must bear in mind that their design will be reversed when applied to their fabric and some students need to reverse it before they cut out the bondaweb (layer of adhesive) and fabric shapes.  They can use various types of fabric to achieve this and can further embellish with decorative components such as embroidery thread, beads, buttons, sequins, etc.  They practise the technique of appliqué before they start the design process.  They choose and purchase their own fabric and can make individual design choice regarding the construction of the tote bag, as there are variations they can do according to their ability.  The can, if time allows, make a lined purse with zip fastening.

Students are required to work in one or more of textiles design, including: fashion design and illustration, art textiles, costume design, constructed textiles, printed and dyed textiles, surface pattern, stitched and/or embossed textiles, soft furnishing and/or textiles for interiors, digital textiles and installed textiles.

Component 1 is completed in terms 1 and 2. 

Component 2: Externally Set Assignment (40% of the qualification) commences in January.  Students produce an extended creative response to an externally set assignment.  Their realisation of intentions takes place in 10 hours of supervised time.  All non-examined assessment (NEA) is marked internally and moderated by a visiting moderator.