Design & Technology Options

At Barking Abbey School Technology is serious and fun. We like to do things rather than just study them to develop an understanding. We organize many trips and visits to support the courses in all year groups. These trips and visits have included the following

• Ford Motor Company Dagenham plant tour. Experience of manufacturing and assembly.
• Ford Global Research site tour at Dunton. This is the research and testing facility used by Fords for their small sized vehicles.
• Millennium wheel with the designer, David Marks and the engineers who built it.
• Millennium Centre Dagenham, high tech, energy efficient and environmentally friendly building construction. (All new buildings should be like this!)
• Technology Challenges; we will enter Barking Abbey students for any Technology competitions and take on anyone. We may not win (But we often do) but at least we can say we were there. Where were you?
• University of East London Product and Engineering Design department. A tour of the department for our Sixth form to show them a variety of career paths into Product Design and Engineering.
• Westferry Printers; a tour for our graphics students to show them various reprographic techniques.

We want you to enjoy your Technology and make the right choices. Many people make decision for many different reasons, some good, some not so good. We would like you to consider the following.

Why you should pick Design and Technology options
Here are many reasons why you should seriously consider a Design and Technology option. Many students make mistakes in their choices due to poor advice, pressure from their friends, lack of knowledge or understanding etc.

There are five options available, you can pick any of them as single options or as doubles/combinations.

OPTIONS (You can pick up to two). If applications allow we will run all girl groups where we can. Read these testimonials to see what former women BA students, who now work in Design and Technology have to say about themselves.

1. Electronic Product Design (Goes well with Double Science and Information Technology).
2. Engineering Design (Goes well with Electronics as a double option).
3. Robotic Mechanisms Design (Excellent double option with engineering- leading to BBC Technogames).
4. Graphic Product Design.
5. Resistant Materials Design.

• Each option is examined in the same way. One major "Design and make" project accounts for 60% of the GCSE, 40% comes from a written paper.
• With a good project it is possible to have enough marks to earn a pass at grade D/C before sitting the written paper.
• Double option Engineering and Electronics will get you two passes at GCSE and is supported by the Engineering Council.
• All of the Design & Technology options are vocational courses. All course content is linked to commercial design,manufacturing and production.
  

These are the facts

• Modern society is run using increasingly more sophisticated Technology, how are you going to be able to cope as the years roll by without an understanding of the world of Technology? Ask older relatives for their E mail address, or perhaps how the window wipers on their car work. (The conversation will be short because they will not know!).
• How are you going to stay up to speed in the world of employment without a Design and Technology background?
• You can pass your GCSE with a D/C grade before you sit a written paper with a good design project.
• Design and Technology is fun! Ask those who took part in the Technology competitions we have entered or the Technology Event at CEME this year if they thought it was good.
• Students say "I`m no good at Art." Fine, neither are most of the good Design and Technologists. You do not have to be good at Art, your skills will develop far beyond this, besides, we use computer software in so many areas that drawing is no longer a major part of our work.
• Students say "I`m not good enough." Let staff be the judge of how good you are. Every student in Year 9 is capable of passing a GCSE in Design and Technology! (You won`t pass your GCSE in Maths next week but by the end of the course you would expect to be good enough!)
• Girls tend to make the mistake of opting out of Design and Technology and miss out on a vast area of work, job opportunities and careers.
• Girls say they will not be good enough, Two out of the top three students in Year 11 GCSE Electronics are girls. All Technology teachers know that girls are the best at this subject. Girls that opt for a Technology know that they are the best.
• The best Advanced Level Design and Technology students are girls.
• 40% of the Advanced Level Design and Technology students are girls.
• There are good career paths into Product Design with our partnership with the design faculty of University of East London Faculty of Product Design and good pathways into Engineering and Industrial Design and Manufacturing.

More information available at the Gateway to Industry for careers in Manufacturing, Engineering and Industry.