At Sturminster Newton High School, the Design Technology curriculum provides a challenging, inclusive and carefully sequenced learning journey that ensures all students are entitled to high-quality teaching and meaningful practical experiences in every classroom they enter. Rooted in the school’s commitment to equity, high expectations and ambition for all, Design Technology enables students to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to design, make and evaluate products that respond to real-world needs.
Design and making are fundamental to everyday life and the wider world. Our curriculum is structured to develop creativity, resilience, teamwork and problem-solving, encouraging students to be reflective, risk-taking designers who learn from mistakes and persevere through challenge. Through a hands-on approach across food preparation and nutrition, textiles, resistant materials and graphics, students gain secure procedural, declarative and disciplinary knowledge, building confidence with tools, materials, equipment and digital technologies including CAD/CAM.
Learning is carefully sequenced from Key Stage 3 through to GCSE, with core skills such as workshop safety, the design process, accuracy and evaluation revisited and deepened over time. Students design for themselves, for clients and for markets, making links between creativity, sustainability and informed consumer choices. High-quality feedback and structured assessment support progress and independence, ensuring all learners know how to improve.
At GCSE, students develop sustained, personal design projects that prepare them for further study, apprenticeships and careers within the creative, technical and STEM industries. Ultimately, the Design Technology curriculum equips students with transferable life skills, cultural capital and ambition, enabling them to succeed in future education and an evolving technological world.
Year 7
- MDF Letter- skills assessment
- Room Sign/Wall Art
- Isometric Sketching
- Laser Cutter introduction.
Year 8
- Desk sculpture/Wood and metals (wire & sheet Aluminium/Copper)
- Includes all designing stages (A01-A04)
Year 9
- Clocks/Mirror/Wall Art/Desk Art
- Students choose one of the start points and complete A01-A04, manufacturing in Wood/Metal/Plastics/Other appropriate materials (clay, foam etc)
Year 10
- Animal/Faces Artwork
- Metal sculptures (Steel & Aluminium)
- CAD/Cam/Laser cutting project
- Sustained Project (Lighting/Natural Forms)
Year 11
- Finishing Sustained project from Year 10
- ESA unit Jan-April
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