Design and Technology at Stringer
Design plays a much bigger part in our daily lives than most of us realise. From the houses we live in, the clothes we wear, the technology we communicate with, to the transport we travel on, in fact all day every day we are constantly using and relying on products that have been designed to support our needs and desires.
Design and technology is delivered to enrich the diverse curriculum at Dorothy Stringer. We endeavour to provide a positive experience of the design and make process, where students are encouraged to take pride in producing products of worth through an attention to quality and detail.
At Stringer we work to engage students in understanding the visual and practical importance of designing, encouraging them to be creative when identifying design problems and to be innovative in generating their solutions. Through the range of material areas offered here at Stringer students are given the opportunity to develop the following skills:
- Think
- Intervene creatively
- Become autonomous
- Solve problems individually and as part of teams
- Be discerning and discriminative
- Be innovative, and able to identify needs, wants and opportunities
- Produce a range of ideas, products and systems
- Combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues, function and industrial practices
- Be reflective in evaluating past and present design technology, its uses and effects
- Become highly informed users of manufactured products
Technology Courses
The Lower School course is highly diverse providing pupils with the opportunity to work in four D&T subject areas Resistant Materials, Electronics, Food, and Textiles Technology. Students are helped to understand: control systems, energy, ergonomics, construction, aesthetics, manufacture, advertising, marketing and designing, their impact on the user, society and the environment.
- Dorothy Stringer operates a two week timetable
- Time allocation in Year 7 is four lessons each of one-hour duration
- Year 8 and 9 students have three one-hour sessions
- The Department operates in the following rooms: one Resistant Materials workshops, one Food, one Textile, one Control / Electronics and one multi discipline workshop
- All students rotate around the 4 subject areas from a designated starting point in the following cycle: RM, Food, Electronics and Textiles and will therefore get 2 experiences of each subject area by the time they complete Year 9
- The Technology Department has 5 technology teachers and two technicians to support the running of the four specialist areas
You can download further information on topics covered within each D&T specialst area at KS3 here >>
In the Upper School students opt for one of the specialist areas within Design and Technology at GCSE level.