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It was fantastic to see our Year 9 students using their design thinking during our recent Enrichment Day. As they stand on the threshold of choosing their GCSE options, we opened...
From Classroom to Career: Alumni Workshop Challenges Design Thinking It was a pleasure to welcome back one of our own this week as we hosted a bespoke Design Identity Workshop led...
It has been an incredibly industrious term in the Design & Technology workshops. Our Year 8 students have stepped up to the challenge of sustainable manufacturing, moving from...
Our enthusiastic Year 7 STEM Leaders have launched an exciting new project, and they have been busy putting their creativity and problem-solving skills to great use. This term,...
Our Year 10 Textiles students have officially stepped into the world of high fashion as they commence their projects for the Young Fashion Designer UK competition. This year, the...
We’re thrilled to share the highlights from a fantastic educational visit for our Year 12 and 13 Product Design students! Last week, our students ventured down to London...
This half term new groups of Year 8 students are developing their textiles knowledge and skill whilst working on the food cushion project. Students have been given a brief to...
Last week, our Year 8 students took on an exciting Design & Technology challenge — to design, build, and test their very own Mars Rovers! Over a two-hour session, C7 was...
Our second group of year 9’s have been introduced to the world of printing and have thoroughly enjoyed creating their own printing blocks and printing their fabrics. This week...
Year 8 have been busy learning about circuits. It was great to see them putting all the theory into action. The enthusiasm from the students about how great their teacher was and...
It was fantastic to see our Year 9 students using their design thinking during our recent Enrichment Day. As they stand on the threshold of choosing their GCSE options, we opened the doors to the D&T workshop to provide a “sneak peek” into the world of GCSE Design and Technology.
The day was designed to demystify the course structure balancing the technical principles of the written exam with the creative freedom of the Non-Exam Assessment (NEA). However, rather than just talking about design, we got straight into the making!
Students were set a fast-paced “Design Fix” challenge. The brief? Create a functional smartphone stand using only a limited palette of card, paper and art straws.
To succeed, their prototypes had to meet a strict professional specification:
Versatility: Support a device in both portrait and landscape orientations.
Functionality: Feature an integrated access point for a charging cable.
Stability: Hold the weight of a device without collapsing.
The highlight of the sessions wasn’t just the final models, but the “lightbulb moments” that happened in between. Students quickly learned that the first idea is rarely the best one.
We focused heavily on Iterative Design, the process of prototyping, testing, and refining. It was brilliant to see students:
Testing: Placing a phone on their rig and watching where it wobbled.
Evaluating: Identifying that a straw joint was too weak or the base was too narrow.
Adapting: Using triangulation or reinforced card folds to solve the problem.
The variety of solutions was staggering; we saw everything from minimalist geometric frames to complex, reinforced “truss” structures.
This session gave students a genuine taste of the problem solving and resilience required at GCSE level. D&T isn’t just about making products; it’s about identifying a need and engineering a solution that works in the real world.
The energy in the room was electric, and if the quality of these prototypes is anything to go by, the future of British design is in very safe hands.
Mrs Hewitt Design and Technology Teacher
