Teaching Staff

Curriculum Intent

The intention of the Design and Technology curriculum is to inspire students’ creativity and imagination and to develop their technical and practical expertise. At the Academy, we want students to be able to define design problems for themselves, address the solutions to them, to become the innovators of the future. All students follow the Design and Technology curriculum at KS3. During their learning journey they will develop skills in relation to the following areas, Designing, Making, Evaluating and Technical Knowledge. The decision across all areas of the department was made to implement projects that can allow students to take with them outside of school and beyond their educational journey. 

We use the national curriculum for KS2 Design and Technology as part of our planning but due to the nature of our students and the wide variety of skills and knowledge delivered by the variety of primary links we have, we as a department have planned a creative journey for all students to engage with regardless of their prior knowledge. Our academy is lucky to have the facilities within the department and the workshops are where students are excited and their skills shine, within DT we give students the opportunity to use specialist tools, techniques, processes, equipment, and machinery precisely.  

Our KS3 curriculum is designed specifically to allow all students to engage and thrive using a mixture of both theory and practical lessons. As a department we use modelling and scaffolding to ensure all pupils can achieve success regardless of language and educational boundaries. Our academy provides fully inclusive courses at both KS3 & KS4 across all the department and option subjects. The variety in teaching strategies within our curriculum ensures all pupils can engage with the content and achieve progress. As a department we have made a conscience decision to implement reading and comprehension activities within each scheme of work with tailored resources, again allowing all students to engage and progress.  

Within the department we have links with local businesses and the local authority organisations where students attend visits relating to a wide variety of careers within the industry. Each year we have the opportunity to work with the VIY Project giving the construction cohort the chance to work at industry and attain a city and guilds accreditation. JJ Smith a family based electrical engineering company based in Kirkby invite us each year for a careers expo where students meet professionals from different organisations promoting careers within construction and different technology-based backgrounds. JJ Smith themselves offer work experience to students who are considering applying for their apprenticeship scheme. As of 2023 ECG Facilities Services has forged a link with the academy offering an apprenticeship in electrical engineering for 1 student each academic year.