Open each section to read the full curriculum outline for that key stage.
The DT curriculum at JFS is designed to be skills based where skills are built upon year on year. In Year 7, DT is taught by specialist staff in separate units as part of a carousel system with students gaining experience across three different focus areas; Graphics, Food Preparation & Nutrition and Fashion & Textiles.
In Year 8, DT is again taught in a carousel system where students gain experience across two focus areas; Food Preparation & Nutrition and Product Design.
In Year 9, students will experience across three focus areas; Product Design, Fashion and Textiles and Food Preparation and Nutrition. Teaching across all three areas will hopefully enable students to gain a better understanding of subjects taught at GCSE level to help them make informed decisions with their GCSE options.
Progression through KS3 is ensured by the increasing complexity of these tasks and the skills required to achieve high quality outcomes year upon year. Standardised booklets are utilised to ensure that all students have equal access to the curriculum with clearly defined tasks and AfL strategies to provide ongoing formative assessment.
GCSE Design & Technology: Product Design
GCSE Design and Technology aims to develop creative, confident and practical designers who understand how products are shaped by real-world contexts and users’ needs. Students learn to explore ideas imaginatively, take thoughtful design risks and refine their work through testing and evaluation. They develop strong decision-making, communication and planning skills while working safely with a wide range of materials, components and technologies. The course encourages ambition, originality and commercial awareness, enabling students to design and make high-quality, functional products that respond meaningfully to people, values and the world around them.
Design and Technology covers 3 topic areas:
GCSE Food Preparation & Nutrition
The GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition is an exciting and creative course which focuses on practical cooking skills to ensure students develop a thorough understanding of nutrition, food provenance and the working characteristics of food materials. At its heart, this qualification focuses on nurturing students' practical cookery skills to give them a strong understanding of nutrition.
Food preparation skills are integrated into five core topics:
At JFS, we offer the WJEC Level 3 Diploma in Food Science and Nutrition, which is equivalent to one A Level.
This course covers four units and is taught across two years:
Unit 1 - Meeting Nutritional Needs of Specific Groups
Unit 2 - Ensuring Food is Safe to Eat
Unit 3 - Experimenting to Solve Food Production Problems
Unit 4 - Current Issues in Food Science and Nutrition
An understanding of food science and nutrition is relevant to many industries and job roles. Care providers and nutritionists in hospitals use this knowledge, as do sports coaches and fitness instructors. Hotels and restaurants, food manufacturers, and government agencies also use this understanding to develop menus, food products, and policies that support healthy eating initiatives.