Food and Nutrition

Year 7
Healthy Eating

Following NC expectations, students are taught how to work safely and hygienically around food in the kitchen. The Eatwell Guide and how it forms the basis of daily food intake allows students to have a clear understanding of what they should be eating for a healthy life. Students learn about different factors that would affect their food choices such as religion, health and age to encourage a greater understanding of cultural diversity. Basic knife skills are taught, along with learning how to use an oven and hob safely with easy practical dishes. The variety of dishes encourages discussion about seasonality and changes to ingredients for different reasons to encourage buying local to help reduce global impact.

Year 8
Food Nutrition

Developing from Year 7, students look at nutrition in more depth. In year 8 students visit the Welsh Farm, so learn to cook dishes that are similar to the types of dishes they would cook during that school trip. This allows for the difference between convenience products and homemade food to be highlighted. Commercial standards are analysed so students learn about food poisoning and labelling to support the Welsh Farm trip.

Year 9
Menu Planning

Students learn further theory about food and nutrition in relation to areas of practical cooking, to help equip them for potential learning in KS4  Hospitality and Catering.

Students develop practical skills learnt in Yr7-8 and create more advanced dishes in core food genres, such as pastry, pasta and sauces. Students will be working towards an end of year assessment practical, where they will showcase their cooking skills to meet a given brief.
Food for Life
Outside of their DT rotation, all students study food and nutrition throughout year 9 to ensure that they are able to prepare a range of nutritious dishes in their life beyond school.

Year 9
Food Staples: Potatoes

Students learn about a food type gaining valuable knowledge for life food choices. They then undertake a tasting session understanding how commercial taste panels work, and are exposed to unusual flavours they may not otherwise experience, supporting confidence in tasting different food types. Following a demo lesson on possible ways to cook the food item,  students then plan and cook their own chosen dish, developing skills on how to prepare and experience different  cooking methods, to support healthy food choices.

3D Design

Year 7
Memo stand

Introducing students to safe working practises in a resistant materials workshop, students create a memo holder product that incorporates learning to use metal and woodworking hand tools in addition to digital laser technologies. Students begin to develop their understanding and recording of the design process and use contemporary  illustrator Charley Harper and his simplification of animal forms to inspire their laser cut designs.

Year 8
Pewter Keyrings

Exploring the properties of metal further, students design and make a smelted pewter key ring. The birth of modernist product and interior design occurred in the 1950’s, influenced by the excitement of the technological Space Race. Spanish artist El Gato Gommez whose retro designs reflect the Space Race era influence  ideas and designs before learning to create laser cut moulds, and pewter smelting, finishing and polishing techniques.

Year 9
Harbour Key Rack

Decorative, practical household items are familiar and popular holiday gift shop products. This practical design brief gives the students the experience of making simple wood joints whilst increasing their understanding of using laser technologies to create scaled design detail and explore British coastal village identity. 

Graphics

Year 7
Thank you cards

Starting with a core Graphical topic of letterpress, students learn about the use of typography and the origins of letter forms and printing processes. This love of lettering will lead towards the design of a thank you card which has been crafted with a range of illustrative techniques, it will also serve as a gesture of gratitude which they can share with someone special to them.

Year 8
Travel Brochure

Students study the skills behind professional publishing and how graphic designers play a key part within this industry. The project introduces digital techniques such as drawing shapes, inserting appropriate typography, using selective colour palettes and composition rules. Learning how to spot the ‘invisible grid’ is a skill that all designers have and use within their own page layouts, carefully balancing different components that enhance the quality of communication within their work. This project will help students become more aware of how to display information in a professional and impactful way, building transferable skills for other curriculum areas.

Year 9
Wonka Packaging

Moving into three-dimensions, exploring the complexity of packaging construction and how designing in multiple dimensions creates a challenging puzzle to solve, students design confectionary product packaging. 

Students learn essential infographic elements required on products (such as barcodes and nutritional values) and plan these onto a design to inform and persuade a consumer's purchasing choices.

Year 9
Abstract Animals

Our fascination with mythical creatures becomes even stronger when technology can blend visual elements together seamlessly to create believable outcomes, such as contemporary AI imagery. In this short photoshop illustration project, pupils learn to develop confidence and techniques in image manipulation.

Year 9
Current Affairs

The news and social media journalism brings all sorts of powerful information to the viewer. Students investigate magazine articles and how they are designed to engage and influence a reader, exploring techniques that build gritty texture and effects in their work progressing digital design competency. 

Textiles

Year 7
Succulents - soft sculpture

The natural world is the most common source of inspiration in Textile Design. Teaching students to see patterns in nature, students make a 3D embroidered succulent plant. British Graphic & Textile artist Nancy Nicholson is studied to demonstrate overlaps within design subjects. 

Students are introduced to the core foundation of a design process, research, analysis, designing, sampling and making a final product. Drawing processes and explaining their opinions and ideas through notes are key learning elements in addition to technical skills in hand embroidery and how to thread and use the sewing machine. 

Year 8
British Seaside - fashion shorts

Building on their knowledge of the design process, students develop basic skills in garment construction through making a pair of shorts. The British seaside is used as a theme to form colourways and patterns and promote happy feelings of holidays and summer seaside fun. Students further develop the technique of applique recapping from their Yr7 work, and learn block printing methods to stretch their knowledge of textile techniques and processes.

Year 9
Repeat patterns

Interior and fashion design have pattern as a core element. Students explore the technicalities of creating patterns, inspired by a range of well known interior and fashion designers, encouraging a wider appreciation of fashion and decorative design through different eras. Learning to use motif, rotation & symmetry through print and stencil processes,  the design process is embedded with greater emphasis on experimenting to support skills ready for GCSE Textiles. The final solution of a repeat pattern print suitable for fashion or interior use is created to support application of design in the real world.

Year 9
Design applications

Students expand the use of their pattern designs into digital formats helping to develop their knowledge  of new technologies and explore scale and colourways to create Collections. Collaged fashion illustrations produced using students' own prints and interior design experiments show possible applications. Pupils produce a final outcome of a fashion or interior design mood board showing a collection of inspiration sources and print applications,  allowing students to see a product journey across the year and increase confidence and growth mindset through projected professional outcomes.

Vocational Award Level 1/2 Hospitality & Catering

Exam Board WJEC Eduqas 
Specification Vocational Award Level 1/2 Hospitality & Catering

Project Title 

Students will learn about the structure of the Hospitality and Catering industry, job requirements within the industry, working conditions of different job roles across the industry and  factors which affect the success of Hospitality and Catering providers.

Purpose provisions to meet specific needs

Students will learn how to  review and recommend options for Hospitality and Catering provision to meet specific consumer needs.

Nutrition and menu planning

Revision of the functions of nutrients in the body, compare the nutritional needs of specific groups of people. Students will be able to explain the characteristics of unsatisfactory nutritional intake.

Practical assessments

Internally assessed exam and coursework that is a culmination of the Unit 2 learning. Students will use their knowledge and learning in order to carry out preparation, cooking and presentation of nutritional dishes in a 3 hour practical exam.

GCSE 3D Design 

Exam Board Edexcel
Specification Art & Design: 3D Design

Bird Box - National Trust client

Working to a client brief is an essential part of Design experience. In this Product design unit, students develop an awareness of consumer and client needs (such as sustainability and branding style), and design and make a bird box inspired by a National Trust property to be sold in their gift shops. Creating awareness of the National Trust as an architectural preservation charity (and accessible local sites) and its support of sustainable traditional crafts ties into the project principles. It introduces architectural language and knowledge in addition to core construction and jointing methods. Students use a wider variety of hand tools and increase their understanding of laser technologies and design software. 

Designer Clock

Students are set a mini-exam unit to experience working in timed conditions and to specific deadlines. As a second product design unit, students research and make a decorative functioning wallclock using the early 20thC De Stijl movement as inspiration, increasing their ability to select relevant sources of inspiration and broaden their knowledge of key influential design movements. A functional and aesthetic design task which engages students in the debate of what is more important ‘form or function?’De Stijl provides a way to explore the link between fine art and design practice, constructing a 3D outcome.

Innovation Architecture

Extending understanding of architectural design, Students design an innovative building concept in response to a specific brief.  Researching Architects and existing architecture to help inform their ideas, they consider what makes a good building and how a building is part of its surroundings and community.  Students need to complete a second course work area. This builds on their tech soft knowledge further and improves their skill level. It further adds to their understanding of user needs and the wider implications of buildings.

Exam unit - working from a theme

Students receive an externally set assignment. They have 8-9 weeks of guided learning to prepare a personal piece in either architectural or product design genres in response to the set theme.

Students then sit a 10 hour controlled test across 2 days in early Term 5 to complete their designed outcome and submit their preparatory studies for assessment. 

GCSE Textiles

Exam Board Edexcel
Specification Art & Design: Textile Design

Nature’s bounty

Students learn how to translate their fruit print designs into repeat prints using CAD programs. Final solution is a mood board utilising print design in fashion or interiors context.

Sweet Treats

Students research sweet wrappers and the Textiles artist Holly Levell. They will respond to her by creating a 3D textile response. Personal ideas are explored through 1st hand photography and drawings through pencil, pen and free-stitch. Students then apply skills in hand and machine embroidery,  felting, applique & construction to create their final ‘food’ textile fine art solution.

Paper Dress

Students explore creative thinking and innovation processes to create a paper dress inspired by conceptual fashion designers such as Issy Miyake.

Literary Character: reconstructed costume

Students learn a range of embellishment and fabric manipulation techniques, inspired by fashion and textile artists. Students apply their own choice of textile techniques learnt across the course to create a an upcycled garment inspired by a literary character.

Exam unit: Working from a theme

Students are set a theme from the exam board and follow the design process to develop their own response. Final solutions can include; print, 3D sculpture, fine art textiles or fashion.

GCSE Graphics

Exam Board Edexcel
Specification Art & Design: Graphic Communications

CMYK Portraits: Illustrations

Students will explore expressive portraiture and replicate other designers’ work. They will also learn new software to support their approach. Graphic designers have a big influence in this area and have enhanced the images of iconic people in publications.

Convention for Change: Environmental Designs

This large project encourages students to develop graphics which decorate a physical space with the purpose of informing and influencing others into action.

The design and curation of convention and exhibition spaces has now become a commercial venture for graphic designers and printers. A niche market to design and build dynamic environments for organisations who wish to communicate a particular message to the public.

Taste Cookbook: Publication and Merchandising

Students move onto refining their 2D Print and publication skills through the design of book cover dust jackets and internal page spreads of information.

Cook books come in a  wide range of types and specialities which use either expressive, literal or sometimes a combination of both as a design approach. Graphic motifs and elegant food photography are used to explore the project theme of taste, as the old saying goes ‘we eat with our eyes’ as part of satisfying our appetites.

Exam unit: Working from a theme

Students are set a theme from the exam board and follow the design process to develop their own response. 

Final solutions can include; packaging, editorial design, poster, book cover,  information graphics, illustration.

To find out more about Design Technology at Key Stage 5, please visit:

https://www.jmf6abingdon.co.uk/curriculum/curriculum-subjects/graphics/

https://www.jmf6abingdon.co.uk/curriculum/curriculum-subjects/textiles/