We provide high quality resources that help pupils to improve their results in the STEM subjects. Our team includes award winning teachers and former senior and principal examiners from across a range of examination bodies. We understand that raising attainment and supporting the progress of learners is key to developing outstanding learning and teaching.
We provide high quality resources that help pupils to improve their results in the STEM subjects. Our team includes award winning teachers and former senior and principal examiners from across a range of examination bodies. We understand that raising attainment and supporting the progress of learners is key to developing outstanding learning and teaching.
Schools use attainment criteria to facilitate the assessment of progress. However, the Secretary of State for education has disapplied the attainment criteria previously used for Key Stage 3 Design & Technology. This disapplication gives the opportunity to adopt new assessment criteria, which more accurately reflect the development of skills that will be assessed in GCSE 9-1 Design & Technology.
The following descriptor statements are based on the NEA assessment criteria in the new GCSE 9-1 Design & Technology specification. They were developed by a group of examiners for use in their own classrooms. They were not prepared by, and have not been approved by, any exam board.
This is an Excel spreadsheet based tool to assist Design & Technology departments in ensuring that they are addressing all of the requirements of the National Curriculum 2014 Programme of Study.
Every project or significant activity in Key Stage 3 Design & Technology should be evaluated to determine which areas of the National Curriculum 2014 Programme of Study (PoS) are being addressed. Across any Key Stage as a whole, learners should have the opportunity to address every area - this will normally be achieved by addressing different requirements across several different projects. This resource can be used to identify areas where action is needed to improve how well the PoS is addressed.
Schools use attainment criteria to facilitate the assessment of progress. However, the Secretary of State for education has disapplied the attainment criteria previously used for Key Stage 3 Design & Technology. One of the weaknesses of the previous attainment criteria was that there was no direct link to progression at Key Stage 4/GCSE Engineering. This disapplication gives the opportunity to adopt new assessment criteria, which more accurately reflect the development of skills that will be assessed in GCSE Engineering.
The following descriptor statements are based on the NEA assessment criteria in the new GCSE 9-1 Engineering specification. They were developed by a group of examiners for use in their own classrooms. They were not prepared by, and have not been approved by, any exam board.
This resource is an example of a departmental maintenance schedule. It was prepared by an experienced Head of Design & Technology and Engineering (HOD) and a Health & Safety Consultant. It was initially intended for use in the HODs own school, to provide guidance to the technician on which activities to carry out on a daily/weekly/termly basis.
In use, the technician enters the date on the relevant table and ticks off the activities carried out. This allows monitoring of the activities and provides a record of the maintenance carried out.
Please note that for use in other schools, it will need to be edited and customised for the specific processes available and working environment. Some blank lines have also been included for school-specific additions.
A series of 16 worksheets designed to support literacy in Design & Technology, focused around the design process.
This resource comprises of:
A pdf document containing a series of worksheets.
A PowerPoint presentation, giving the answers to the worksheets.
The worksheets are designed to support literacy in technology, through the use of key terms, the development of correct recall and spelling. The worksheets range in difficulty from simple, such as wordlinks or missing letters, to more complicated, such as codebreakers or crosswords.
For some worksheets there is a differentiated version, where the possible answers are shown in a box below the puzzle. These versions could be used to provide additional support to lower-ability learners.
A series of 19 worksheets designed to support literacy in Design & Technology, focused around the use of ACCESS FM for product analysis.
This resource comprises of:
A pdf document containing a series of worksheets.
A PowerPoint presentation, giving the answers to the worksheets.
The worksheets are designed to support literacy in technology, through the use of key terms, the development of correct recall and spelling. The worksheets range in difficulty from simple, such as wordlinks or missing letters, to more complicated, such as codebreakers or crosswords.
For some worksheets there is a differentiated version, where the possible answers are shown in a box below the puzzle. These versions could be used to provide additional support to lower-ability learners.
This Excel based tool provides star charts that can be used, for example, in Food Technology. The appropriate tab can be copied and edited into other work books as required.
This is an independent research task for learners to build and consolidate their knowledge of composite materials, using the aviation industry as a theme. It can be set as a homework or class based activity, or a mixture of both. Supporting the main task sheet is a short test that can be used to assess what the students have learnt at the end of the task.
This resource is suitable for supporting learning in Engineering, Product Design and Resistant Materials at key stage 4. In addition to developing subject knowledge the resource is also designed to help learners improve their independent learning skills and examination technique.
Included in this resource:
Suggestions for use.
Main research activity sheet/handout.
15 minute test set in the style of a short examination.
Mark scheme for the test.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Food Preparation and Nutrition lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 60 slides. Its objective is to support literacy in the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition, by focusing on key terms in food choice. The slides include picture recognition, cloze questions and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, but due to common content could be easily adapted for courses from other awarding bodies.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Food Preparation and Nutrition lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 60 slides. Its objective is to support literacy in the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition, by focusing on key terms in food, nutrition and health. The slides include picture recognition, cloze questions and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, but due to common content could be easily adapted for courses from other awarding bodies.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Food Preparation and Nutrition lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 60 slides. Its objective is to support literacy in the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition, by focusing on key terms in food preparation skills. The slides include equipment recognition, cloze questions and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, but due to common content could be easily adapted for courses from other awarding bodies.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Design and Technology lessons in minutes!
This resource contains 60 slides. Its objective is to support literacy in the new GCSE D&T, by focusing on key terms in new and emerging technologies. The slides include picture recognition, cloze questions and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in D&T or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, which has been approved for first teaching in September 2017.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Food Preparation and Nutrition lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 60 slides. Its objective is to support literacy in the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition, by focusing on key terms in food safety. The slides include picture recognition, cloze questions and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, but due to common content could be easily adapted for courses from other awarding bodies.
Sustainability is a crucial part of Design and Technology and one of the topics at GCSE where pupils frequently make mistakes or show an incorrect understanding. This 20 page PowerPoint resource has been written by a former senior examiner for one of the three main examination boards and has been tried and tested with students in the classroom.
It introduces the 6Rs (rethink, reduce, refuse, repair, reuse, recycle), explains to learners what each means and shows how each can be used. It also introduces activities to help students to remember the 6Rs and demonstrate the knowledge needed for the examination.
It is suitable for the both the current and new GCSE D&T courses where sustainability and/or the 6Rs is covered by the specification.
What teachers have said about this resource:
'Thanks for this resource - well made and very useable for my students.' - SG
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Design and Technology lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 60 slides. Its objective is to support literacy and numeracy in the new GCSE D&T, by focusing on key terms in materials and material properties. The slides include picture recognition, cloze questions, numeracy problems and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in D&T or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, which has been approved for first teaching in September 2017.
This pack contains series of five different word search based worksheets mapped directly to each section of the new Design and Technology national curriculum (Design, Make, Evaluate, Technical Knowledge, Cooking and Nutrition). It is designed to support literacy skills within KS3 D&T.
Follow up questions are presented for each word search which ask learners to state the meaning of key words, thus getting learners to both spell and understand key words in the new curriculum effectively. Each worksheet comes with its own answer sheet giving the solution to the worksheet and example answers to the follow up questions on each sheet.
These worksheets can be printed for use as quick lesson starters or plenaries. They can also be set as homework activities to reinforce key words learnt in lessons. The answer sheets can be used by teachers to mark pupil responses, or used by pupils as a peer assessment activity.
Included in this Resource:
One worksheet for each of the five diffierent strands in the new D&T national curriculum, each with a word search and follow up questions asking learners to state the definition of the key words.
An answer sheet for each work sheet.
Introductory notes explaining how to use the resource.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Design and Technology lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 100 slides. Its objective is to support literacy in the new GCSE D&T, by focusing on key terms in manufacturing tools, equipment and processes. The slides include picture recognition, cloze questions and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in D&T or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, which has been approved for first teaching in September 2017.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Design and Technology lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 80 slides. Its objective is to support literacy and numeracy in the new GCSE D&T, by focusing on key terms in electronic systems and mechanical devices. The slides include electronic symbols, component recognition, cloze questions, numeracy problems and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in D&T or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, which has been approved for first teaching in September 2017.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Design and Technology lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 60 slides. Its objective is to support literacy in the new GCSE D&T, by focusing on key terms in energy and forces. The slides include picture recognition, cloze questions and anagrams. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in D&T or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, which has been approved for first teaching in September 2017.
Create outstanding customised starters and plenaries for your Design and Technology lessons in minutes!
This resource contains over 80 slides. Its objective is to support literacy and numeracy in the new GCSE D&T, by focusing on key terms in designing and design issues. The slides include picture recognition, cloze questions, anagrams and numeracy problems. Simply copy and paste the appropriate slides for your own lessons.
This is suitable for use to support teaching of the new GCSE in D&T or at Key Stage 3. It has been written with direct reference to the AQA specification, which has been approved for first teaching in September 2017.