Rationale
Design and Technology at Haslingden High School and Sixth Form is not just about working towards academic qualifications but also about developing our students as people, and helping them become resilient and inquisitive learners who are capable of working independently and collaboratively. We aim to excite and inspire all students to become innovative and creative, by providing a “hands-on” curriculum experience which develops practical and problem-solving skills, technical knowledge and an understanding of our subjects in the world around them. In doing so, this will prepare them for the fast-changing life beyond school. We aim to make the best possible use of the wide-ranging knowledge and expertise of our staff, together with the fantastic facilities and opportunities unique to our faculty in order to make a significant contribution to the school aims by offering a diverse and ambitious curriculum that all our students can access.
Health and Social Care has an additional rationale. This course focuses on health, social care and early years workers and users. Throughout the course, students will apply their knowledge and understanding through activities such as role-play, case studies and work-related scenarios. Students are introduced to as wide a range of job opportunities as possible within the health, social care and early years settings and through the delivery of the different units we will prepare students for the world of work, equipping them with a range of transferrable skills that can be utilised in many different careers but specifically preparing them for work in the health or social care environment.
Overview:
Homework
Key Stage 3
In years 7, 8 and 9 students will be given homework tasks that will help embed key concepts they need to know for all of the areas they study in Design and Technology. Homework will mainly be in the form of multiple-choice quizzes, using apps such as Quizlet and Socrative. The tasks will help identify and fill gaps in knowledge, as well as helping to reinforce learning that has already taken place. Over the course of the 3 years, homeworks will cover a wide range of topics, such as properties of materials, mechanical and electronic systems, food and nutrition, health and safety, new and emerging technologies and many more.
Key Stage 4
GCSE Design and Technology
Throughout years 10 and 11 students will be given homework that will help them prepare for the written exam at the end of year 11 (this counts 50% towards the GCSE grade). Homework tasks will be in the form of short multiple-choice quizzes, using apps such as Quizlet and Socrative, as well as written tasks. These will not only enable the students to improve their knowledge, but will also enable them to develop their ability to answer GCSE exam questions.
In year 11 there will be a significant emphasis on the completion of the non-exam assessment (or NEA). This is a coursework project that also counts 50% towards the GCSE grade and, because it has to be supervised, most of it will be completed in school. However, students may also need to undertake a small number of tasks as part of their homework, for example to conduct a client interview, or in seeking third party feedback about aspects of their designs.
GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition
In year 10 students will complete written homeworks which will reinforce the theory work studied in the classroom. These tasks will be a combination of written tasks and work done using apps such as Google Classroom and Socrative. In addition to this students will be required to prepare for practical cooking lessons, which will take place most weeks, by providing ingredients for their dishes. If any student has a problem in doing this, we ask for contact to be made as soon as possible so that we can assist in whatever way we can. As part of their homework students will also be asked to plan their own practical work; this will include deciding upon the most appropriate dish(es) for a given brief and the completion of a time plan.
In year 11 homework will mainly centre around revision and reinforcing theory covered in class, in preparation for the final exam at the end of year 11. Tasks will be in a variety of forms, including written tasks and work done on Google Classroom and other apps. In year 11 students will undertake the NEA and, whilst this must be done in school under supervised conditions, students will occasionally carry out research at home in preparation for NEA work that they will do in school. Students will also be expected to carry out evaluations at home being able to draw upon the opinions and suggestions of family members.
Level 1/2 OCR Cambridge National in Health and Social Care
Throughout years 10 and 11, homework will be used to support the completion of the controlled assessment tasks that they will be assessed on. Although students must complete the assessed tasks in school under supervised conditions, homework will involve completing research, revision or set tasks from lessons which have been designed to support the required elements of the coursework requirements. In the majority of cases all homework tasks and coursework deadline dates will be posted on Google Classroom, where students will be expected to complete and submit them.
Key Stage 5
A-level Product Design
There are 2 components to A-level Product Design: an “NEA”, which is a design and make task worth 50% of the A-level grade, and also two exams which students sit at the end of year 13, counting for the other 50%. Homework tasks in years 12 and 13 mainly focus on the theory elements that relate to the exams; this is because the NEA, which students start at the end of year 12 and complete by March of year 13, must be undertaken in school under supervised conditions. Therefore homework tasks will focus on embedding knowledge and understanding and also on exam technique, by preparing students to be able to answer more challenging A-level questions. Homeworks will be set online, using apps such as Google Classroom and Socrative, and will also include written and drawing tasks. In addition to answering questions, students will also be expected to read around the topics we study in lessons and produce their own notes and knowledge organisers, as these are excellent ways of helping them to further develop and embed in-depth knowledge. Occasionally, as part of homework, students will have to undertake research relating to their NEA which is not possible for them to do in school; for example, at various stages of the design process, they might need to interview a client or potential user of the product they are designing, and this person might not be someone they can access whilst in school. In these instances, students must bring their research back into school in order to document it formally in their design portfolio.
Level 3 Cambridge Technical in Health and Social Care
Homework will be used to support the completion of controlled assessment assignments. Due to strict guidelines, the assignments themselves must be completed mainly in school under supervised conditions. Therefore homeworks will involve completing research and other tasks which will support the students by preparing them for completing the coursework assignments in school. Most homework tasks and coursework deadline dates will be posted on Google Classroom, where students will be expected to complete and submit work. For the external exam units, homework will introduce and prepare students for the next topic and also reinforce learning from previous lessons. This will be in a variety of formats including answering past papers and producing labelled diagrams.