Design Technology

Knowledge & Skills

Our curriculum is industry-informed, drawing explicitly on the practices, technologies, and values of professional sectors. Every project is designed with the intention of aligning classroom learning with the dynamic realities of construction sites, design studios, manufacturing plants, and architectural firms. As such, students encounter a curriculum that is not abstract or detached, but deeply practical, applied, and purposeful. 

At the heart of our curriculum is the ambition to develop both technical expertise and design thinking. Students are systematically introduced to key tools, processes, materials, and techniques used across the engineering and construction industries. From understanding the properties of metals, polymers, timbers, composites, and smart materials, to learning safe and efficient use of hand tools, machines, and digital technologies, students are encouraged to gain a confident command of the physical and digital aspects of making. 

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) are becoming central to the KS3 experience. Students learn to model in 2D and 3D using industry-relevant software such as SketchUp, Autodesk Inventor or Fusion 360, and see their designs come to life through laser cutting, CNC routers, and 3D printing. These skills are taught within meaningful contexts, enabling learners to understand how digital design and rapid prototyping are revolutionising modern industry, and providing a gateway to careers in design, construction, product development, and advanced engineering. 

Yet technical skill alone does not make an engineer or designer. Our curriculum also promotes deep, conceptual understanding and critical inquiry. Students analyse products and systems to understand how and why they were developed, and explore the social, environmental, and economic implications of design decisions. Product analysis and reverse engineering tasks allow learners to decode the thinking behind existing solutions, while design challenges push them to apply this knowledge in new, innovative ways. 

Problem-solving is at the core of every unit. Students are challenged to meet authentic design briefs that require imaginative responses grounded in feasibility and function. From designing sustainable architecture and ergonomic tools to inclusive products that meet the needs of diverse users, these projects reflect the real challenges facing industry today. Through this process, students build creative confidence, resilience, and systems-level thinking and key skills that transfer well beyond the classroom. 

Prototyping and modelling are integral to our approach. Students are taught to see modelling not as a final outcome, but as a tool for thinking, testing, and refining ideas. From sketches and mock-ups to working models and digital simulations, they learn to iterate and improve. This mirrors how professionals work in industry where risk-taking, trial and error, and continuous learning are valued parts of the creative process. 

Key vocabulary and subject-specific language are embedded throughout the curriculum. Students learn to articulate design intent, explain technical processes, and evaluate products with accuracy and clarity. This technical literacy is vital for preparing students to pursue further education and careers in STEM and design-based disciplines and enables them to speak the language of the industries they may one day join. 

Our curriculum is interdisciplinary, and enquiry driven. Units are framed around big questions such as “What makes a product truly sustainable?” or “How do engineers design for the real world?” questions that encourage curiosity, challenge assumptions, and prompt students to investigate deeply. Alongside this, the curriculum connects to learning in maths, science, geography, and computing, reinforcing the idea that design is an integrated and holistic process. 

Assessment is formative, developmental, and reflective. We use regular opportunities for students to present their work, receive feedback, and refine their ideas. Reflection is built into the design process, helping students understand their own growth and identify areas for further development. This supports a metacognitive approach to learning where students understand not just what they’re learning, but how and why they’re learning it. 

Through careful sequencing and progression across Years 7 to 9, students revisit core concepts such as material properties, design processes, and industrial practices, each time with increased depth and complexity. This allows for both consolidation and extension of knowledge and prepares students for GCSE Design and Technology or vocational pathways such as Engineering, Construction, and Built Environment qualifications. 

 

Real-World Application

Ultimately, Design Technology at KS3 is about more than making things, it is about making meaning. It equips students with the mindset, methods, and motivation to shape the world around them with purpose. By developing their ability to analyse problems, generate creative solutions, and understand how the physical world is designed and made, students become confident, capable contributors to the future of technology and innovation. 

Whether they go on to design bridges, buildings, systems, or products, our students leave with more than knowledge, they leave with a vision of how they can use that knowledge to build a better world. 

Overview

Students will complete three units across the year that develop skills in design thinking, making, evaluating, and technical knowledge. Each unit introduces key concepts and vocabulary, progressing from foundational safety and skills to problem solving and functional design. The curriculum embeds cross-cutting skills such as isometric drawing, electronic systems, and sensors throughout. 

Unit 1: Health & Safety and Keyring Project 

Focus: Introduction to workshop safety, tools, materials, and processes. Students will design and make a personalised keyring. 

Key Components: 

• Design: Develop ideas using templates and initial sketches. 

• Make: Learn safe use of tools (e.g., coping saw, file, drill) and basic shaping techniques. 

• Evaluate: Assess their own and peers’ keyrings against design intentions. 

• Technical Knowledge: Understand different types of recycled plastics. 

Key Vocabulary: PPE, acrylic, template, shaping, sanding, drilling, accuracy, finish, safety hazard, material property. 

Know Focus: Understand how to work safely in a workshop, identify key tools and materials, and understand basic plastic forming techniques. 
Show/Skill Focus: Isometric drawing introduction; workshop safety rules. 

Unit 2: Problem Solving Challenge Project 

Focus: Students tackle a design brief requiring them to develop a solution to a functional problem using materials and creativity. 

Key Components: 

• Design: Interpret a user-focused brief, research, generate and develop ideas. 

• Make: Use modelling and prototyping materials (e.g., paper, card, cardboard, MDF) to create a concept solution. 

• Evaluate: Reflect on functionality, aesthetics and user feedback. 

• Technical Knowledge: Explore structures, forces, material behaviour and basic mechanical principles. 

Key Vocabulary: Brief, user, prototype, structure, force, modelling, stability, compression, tension, refine. 

Know Focus: Learn to analyse a brief, develop creative responses to problems, and understand structures, forces, and simple mechanical systems. 

Show/Skill Focus: Apply isometric drawing to present final solution; introduce sensors/electronic systems where appropriate. 

Unit 3: Bookend Project 

Focus: Create a functional and personalised bookend using MDF and/or cardboard and demonstrate accurate design-to-make skills. 

Key Components: 

• Design: Research themes and existing products, sketch and develop a final concept with orthographic/isometric drawing. 

• Make: Apply joinery and jointing skills using tools and machines. 

• Evaluate: Assess the outcome against specification, reflect on user suitability and finish quality. 

• Technical Knowledge: Learn about joining techniques, material properties (wood and cardboard), forces, and manufacturing processes. 

Key Vocabulary: Joint, finish, specification, hardwood, softwood, function, stability, resistance, filing, forming. 

Know Focus: Understand joining methods, material properties, design to specification, and processes used in workshop manufacture. 
Show/Skill Focus: Extend isometric and technical drawings; apply basic electronic system theory. 

Cross-Curricular Threads: 

• Isometric Drawing: Introduced in Unit 1 and used throughout to develop visual communication. 

• Electronic Systems & Sensors: Concepts introduced in Unit 2 and explored in Unit 3 through applicable contexts. 

Assessment Across Units: 

• Practical outcomes 

• Design booklet work (including sketches, annotations, and evaluations) 

• Verbal and written evaluations 

• Technical vocabulary and concept application 

End of Year Goal: 
Students develop confidence in working safely, designing with a purpose, problem-solving independently, and producing high-quality practical outcomes with increasing precision and creativity. 

Students continue to develop their design thinking, technical knowledge, and practical skills through increasingly challenging projects. Each unit builds on Year 7 foundations and introduces new tools, systems, and design strategies. The focus includes sustainability, testing, and integration of electronic systems and sensors. 

Unit 1: Wind Turbine Design, Prototype and Testing 

Focus: Explore renewable energy by designing and prototyping a working wind turbine model. Emphasis on testing and iterative development. 

Key Components: 

• Design: Research renewable energy, sketch ideas, and possibly use CAD to visualise turbine designs. 

• Make: Construct prototype using basic mechanisms and recycled or sustainable materials. 

• Evaluate: Test performance (e.g., rotation speed, power generated), reflect on improvements. 

• Technical Knowledge: Understand energy transfer, gear ratios, turbine structure and mechanical systems. 

Key Vocabulary: Turbine, renewable, prototype, kinetic energy, aerodynamic, axis, blade pitch, generator, gear ratio, sustainability. 

Know Focus: Understand the principles of wind energy, aerodynamic blade design, and the role of testing in refining design performance. 

Show/Skill Focus: Accurate measuring, iterative testing, data interpretation. 

Unit 2: Problem Solving Challenge Project 

Focus: Students engage with complex design challenges requiring creative solutions, collaboration, and prototyping under time constraints.  

Key Components: 

• Design: Investigate user needs, generate ideas, develop and present concepts using 2D/3D visuals. 

• Make: Build functional models to represent ideas clearly. 

• Evaluate: Test, refine, and present solutions based on user feedback. 

• Technical Knowledge: Learn how to choose appropriate materials and understand properties and limitations. 

Key Vocabulary: Brief, iteration, criteria, model, feedback, function, resilience, optimise, refine, inclusive design. 

Know Focus: Learn to respond to real-world challenges, apply system thinking and evaluate materials and user needs effectively. 

Show/Skill Focus: Group collaboration, systems thinking, critical analysis. 

Unit 3: Desk Light with Sensors and Systems 

Focus: Design and build a working desk light using timber/MDF and metal, incorporating sensors and electronic systems.  

Know Focus: Understand circuit systems, materials used in product design, and how light and sensor integration improve function and user interaction. 

Key Components: 

• Design: Investigate user needs and aesthetics, sketch ideas, and develop full working drawings. 

• Make: Use woodwork tools and simple metal shaping to build the lamp; integrate basic electronics and sensors. 

• Evaluate: Test light performance, reflect on design and usability. 

• Technical Knowledge: Understand electronics (resistors, LEDs, sensors), material properties and joining techniques (soldering) 

Key Vocabulary: Sensor, resistor, LED, soldering, timber, MDF, circuit, switch, form, function. 

Know Focus: Understand circuit systems, materials used in product design, and how light and sensor integration improve function and user interaction. 

Show/Skill Focus: Component assembly, soldering, wood shaping, electronic safety. 

Cross-Curricular Threads: 

• Isometric & Technical Drawing: Advanced sketching and drawing used in all units. 

• Electronic Systems & Sensors: Explored through real-life application in Unit 3. 

• Sustainability & Testing: Embedded throughout, especially in Unit 1. 

Assessment Across Units: 

• Final outcomes and prototypes 

• Design process documentation (folders, models) 

• Verbal and written evaluations 

• Technical vocabulary and application 

End of Year Goal: 
Students build confidence in solving complex problems, testing and refining ideas, and combining creative design with real-world function and technologies. 

In Year 9, students consolidate and extend their knowledge of materials, manufacturing processes, and problem-solving. Emphasis is placed on user-centred design, industry practice, sustainability, and functional prototyping. Students investigate materials and processes with a focus on precision and professional standards.  

Unit 1: Portable Mobile Phone Amplifier Project 

Focus: Design and make a portable amplifier for a mobile phone using various materials including wood, metal, and recycled plastics. 

Key Components: 

• Design: Investigate existing products, create a design brief and specification, use sketching and CAD to develop ideas. 

• Make: Apply safe and accurate construction techniques in multiple materials including timber, sheet metal, and plastics. 

• Evaluate: Test sound amplification and aesthetics; reflect on user suitability and improvements. 

• Technical Knowledge: Explore sound reflection/amplification, properties of materials, and appropriate joining techniques. 

Key Vocabulary: Amplification, acoustic, template, recycle, joinery, shaping, reflection, resonance, sustainability, innovation. 

Know Focus: Understand acoustic principles, product design for sound amplification, and working properties of different materials including sustainable/recycled choices. 

Show/Skill Focus: Mixed material techniques, quality finish, testing and iterative improvement. 

Unit 2: Casting Processes – Concrete & Industry Links 

Focus: Explore casting as a manufacturing process through hands-on experience with concrete. Pewter and other industrial casting methods will be explored and demonstrated. 

Know Focus: Understand industrial casting techniques, including mould creation, material behaviour, safety, and the environmental impact of production. 

Key Components: 

• Design: Research casting in industry, design a moulded object, create technical drawings. 

• Make: Produce a concrete cast product using reusable or custom moulds; observe and understand pewter and sand-casting processes. 

• Evaluate: Reflect on mould quality, casting success, finish, and fitness for purpose. 

• Technical Knowledge: Learn about formwork, casting materials, shrinkage, curing, and industry applications. 

Key Vocabulary: Casting, mould, curing, concrete, pewter, shrinkage, tensile strength, reusable, prototype, industrial process. 

Know Focus: Understand industrial casting techniques, including mould creation, material behaviour, safety, and the environmental impact of production. 

Show/Skill Focus: Surface finish, mould accuracy, technical vocabulary, industry comparisons. 

Cross-Curricular Threads: 

• CAD and Technical Drawing: Used for planning and visualising designs. 

• Sustainability & Industry Practice: Embedded across projects, including material sourcing and recycling. 

• Hands-On Skills & Technical Understanding: Progressively built to support future vocational or GCSE pathways. 

Assessment Across Units: 

• Practical project outcomes 

• Written and visual documentation 

• Technical vocabulary use 

• Design process evidence 

End of Year Goal: 
Students leave KS3 with advanced practical ability, critical understanding of design and manufacture, and insight into how D&T connects to industry. 

 

GCSE/Vocational Exam Board: WJEC/EDQUAS 

Construction in the Built Environment (Technical Award) 

Full specification can be found here: WJEC ENTRY LEVEL FRAMEWORK SPECIFICATION 

Assessment: The Vocational course consists of 1 externally assessed exam paper at the end of Year 11. The current exam is sat on a computer.   
  

Unit 1 – Introduction to the Built Environment 

 Paper 1: 1 hour 30 minutes.   
40% of the GCSE qualification.  
80 marks.   

The 8 sections of study are: 

• 1.1 The sector  
   
• 1.2 The built environment life cycle  
   
• 1.3 Types of building and structure  
   
• 1.4 Technologies and materials  
   
• 1.5 Building structures and forms  
   
• 1.6 Sustainable construction methods  
   
• 1.7 Trades, employment and careers  
   
• 1.8 Health and safety 

Unit 3 – Constructing the Built Environment 

In the internal Unit 3 students complete a series of hands-on practical tasks that help them develop essential skills for the construction and engineering industries. Throughout the course, students take part in three main practical activities: tiling, electrical installation, and plumbing systems. Each task is supported by a student booklet where they record their understanding, reflect on their work, and show how they’ve developed their skills. 

As part of their Year 10 preparation, students also complete a fourth task focused on carpentry and joinery, giving them early experience in working with wood and learning key construction techniques. 

Alongside the practical work, students build knowledge through written tasks in their booklets. These include identifying the correct tools and materials, learning how to plan a job from start to finish, and understanding how to recycle or safely dispose of materials. Students also learn to set their own success criteria, helping them evaluate how well their finished work meets the requirements. 

This practical approach not only builds confidence and independence but also gives students a strong foundation for further study or careers in construction, engineering, and other skilled trades. 

Unit 3: 30 hours   
60% of the GCSE/Vocational qualification.  
120 marks.   

 

Studying Design and Technology at Neston High School opens the door to exciting and diverse opportunities in further education, apprenticeships, and careers across the construction, design, and engineering sectors. 

University Degrees 

Design and Technology provide a strong foundation for students aiming to pursue university degrees in areas such as Engineering, Architecture, Product Design, Construction Management, Industrial Design, and Sustainable Built Environments. Many leading UK universities offer specialist courses that build on the technical knowledge, problem-solving ability, and design thinking developed at KS3 and KS4. These degrees often include opportunities to work on live projects and gain industry experience. 

Career Prospects 

DT students develop highly transferable skills such as creativity, precision, critical thinking, project planning, and evaluation. These are essential in careers such as civil engineering, construction project management, architecture, quantity surveying, building services engineering, product design, and more. Students are prepared to work in dynamic environments where innovation and practical problem-solving are key. 

Apprenticeships & Industry Links 

Our curriculum also supports direct pathways into employment through apprenticeships in construction, joinery, electrical installation, plumbing, engineering, and related trades. These roles are in high demand and offer structured training, hands-on experience, and clear progression routes. Many of our units are designed to mirror real industry standards, helping students develop confidence, technical knowledge, and career readiness. 

By studying Design and Technology, students gain more than technical skills, they develop the tools and mindset to design, build, and shape the world around them. Whether pursuing further study or entering the workforce, they leave ready to thrive in tomorrow’s industries. 

For any subject-specific queries, curriculum information, or academic support, please contact: 

Mr J Storey – Design and Technology and Construction Curriculum Leader: storeyj@nestonhigh.com