Design and Technology
The Design and Technology Department is a continuously evolving and thriving department, committed to helping all students achieve their full potential. Our aim is to offer students a wide range of different and interesting projects, focusing on every aspect of Design and Technology.
In Design and Technology students combine practical and technological skills with creative thinking to design and make products and systems that meet human needs. They learn to use current technologies and consider the impact of future technological developments. They learn to think creatively and intervene to improve the quality of life, solving problems as individuals and members of a team.
At Key Stage 3, students follow schemes of work that develop and explore new skills. The complexity of the projects increases as the students progress through the Key Stage. Within their projects, students combine practical and intellectual skills with an understanding of aesthetic, technical, cultural, health, social, emotional, economic, industrial and environmental issues. As they do, they evaluate present and past Design and Technology, and its uses and effects. Through Design and Technology students develop confidence in using practical skills and become discriminating users of products. They apply their creative thinking and learn to innovate. Throughout Key Stage 3, students rotate throughout the department learning skills within Resistant Materials, Engineering and Food.
COURSES
• GCSE – AQA Food and Nutrition
• GCSE – Edugas Design and Technology
• A Level – Edugas Design and Technology
• Cambridge Nationals Level 2 Engineering Manufacture
• BTEC – Level 3 Engineering (Extended Certificate / Foundation Diploma)
FACILITIES
We have great Facilities within the College which consist of:
- Practical workshops
- A Sixth Form multifunctional room
- A multifunctional workshop
- 2 ICT Labs
- Technician’s Prep Room
- Food Rooms
- Textiles Rooms
- Electronics Lab
- Conference Room / Classroom
- Rooms containing CAD/CAM equipment and a Spray Booth
- Engineering workshop area with Heat Treatment Room
The department is well equipped with its own dedicated ICT rooms, installed with the latest CAD software linked to our CAM equipment. We are fully equipped with modern workshops that provide students space to use both hand tools and fixed machinery in a safe environment. A range of technology is available to students which has broadened the scope of design at AMVC. This includes access to Laser Cutters, 3D Printers, a CNC lathe and router, Vinyl Plotters, a dedicated electronics area and spray booth. The department is also fully furnished with traditional machinery such as a plastics thermoforming centre, manual centre lathes and milling machines, pillar drills, band facers, wood lathes, fret saws and metal fabrication facilities, with access to a range of welding and casting processes.
