What we are trying to achieve with students
In Textiles we would like to bring out the creative side of our students, to give them opportunities to be innovative when designing and to enjoy making successful and useable textile products. In the upper school students will also understand the complex relations between design, materials, manufacture and marketing.
The courses we run
KS3:
Students will learn how to use a sewing machine as well as a range of decorative techniques. In Year 7 students make a pencil case and a wall hanging, decorated with printed designs. In Year 8, tie dye, stencilling, batik and appliqué are taught and used to decorate a cushion cover. In Year 9, CAD is used to create a design to transfer print on to a bag.
KS4:
Exam Board: AQA Subject Title: Design and Technology Textiles Technology
Controlled Assessment: 60%; Examination: 40%
The GCSE course involves two practical tasks in Year 10 as well as theory work related to materials and components, processes and manufacture and environmental and health and safety issues. The controlled assessment task, which is started in April of Year 10, consists of a single design and make activity selected from a range of tasks set by the examination board.
KS5:
Exam Board AQA Design and Technology: Product Design Textiles
Coursework: 50%; Examination: 50%
AS: A portfolio approach to coursework is taken whereby students produce a folder of design work linked to each of three practical outcomes: a beach bag, a piece of soft furnishing, and a piece of clothing. Theory work is centred around the analysis of textiles products and leads to a two hour exam worth 50% of the AS qualification.
A2: A single design and make project is the focus of coursework that gives students the opportunity to stretch and challenge themselves by combining their designing and making skills with subject knowledge and understanding. The synoptic assessment covers materials and components, design and market influences and processes and manufacture.
Gifted and Talented Students
High Achievers/Subject Specialists in Food and Textiles will demonstrate several of the following:
- Flashes of inspiration and highly original or innovative ideas
- High levels of technological understanding and application
- High quality making and precise practical skills
- Different ways of working or different approaches to issues
- Sensitivity to aesthetic, social and cultural issues when designing and evaluating
- A capacity for rigorous analysis and interpretation of products
- Frustration when a teacher demands that they follow a rigid design-and-make process
- The ability to work comfortably in contexts beyond their own experience and empathise with users’ and clients’ needs and wants
- The enthusiasm to seek out relevant research material independently and use it to develop creative design ideas
- High level communication skills
- An ability to be a reflective practitioner
- An ability to apply knowledge that has been taught within a given context
- An ability to sequence activities within a given task
Items of particular interest
- Trip to The Clothes Show for Year 10 and Year 12 students in December
- After school club for Year 9 students
Please click on the pictures below to view a larger image