‘You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.’ –  Maya Angelou, author, poet, civil rights activist

The Design and Technology department at The West Grantham Church of England Secondary Academy comprises one full- time teacher and one full-time technician. Our team encourage students to experience and demonstrate a wealth of skills that they can develop into potential future careers.

We support the school’s values by developing our students’ Creativity, Responsibility and Wisdom in all of our lessons:

  • We encourage a creative approach to design, so students learn to ‘think outside the box’ to uncover meanings as well as developing their own creative skills
  • We promote a responsible and helpful approach to learning, through a balance of independent, paired and group tasks in lessons
  • We seek to foster the wisdom that grows from studying a range of designers from many different areas of Design and Technology

Design and technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Using creativity and imagination, students design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. They acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. Our students learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world. High-quality design and technology education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of the nation.

How do we encourage students to succeed in Design Technology at WGSA?

Adaptive teaching is used to support learners through:

  • Pre-teaching and consistent use of subject specific vocabulary
  • Modelling and demonstration of techniques and videos
  • Printed resources to enable independence
  • Projects broken down into smaller tasks/steps
  • Questioning and quizzes
  • Sentence starters/structure strips for written tasks
  • Seating plans

KS3 – Textiles

  •  Health and Safety
  • Basic sewing skills
  • The Design Story
  • Design and Development
  • Product analysis
  • Evaluation

KS3 – Graphics

  • Health and Safety
  • Basic Net Skills
  • The Design Story
  • Design and Development
  • Product analysis
  • Evaluation

Enrichment

 Year 7 Textiles club.

Please click here for more information of our enrichment timetable.

Useful websites

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

https://designmuseum.org/