Head of Department: Mr R. Maposa.

Members of Staff: Mr O. Mlalazi and Mrs G. Molife.

Vision Statement

The Design and Technology department at St George’s College is committed to delivering a curriculum accessible to all which provides the broadest possible range of opportunities for students. One which will allow students to become self-motivated and confident learners, who can work independently and as part of a team. We aim to ensure that learners develop technical and practical competencies as well as the wider skills valued by employers. Our main priority is for students to be problem solvers who are not afraid of making mistakes. We hope our students will become responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.

Mission Statement:

The department firmly believes that students learn best by ‘doing’ and by allowing them to experiment and take risks, in a safe and positive learning environment. This is achieved through imaginative teaching that embraces new technologies and resembles modern industrial processes, whilst retaining the best of traditional practices. At the heart of this, is the desire to deliver a curriculum in which students produce high quality outcomes. Students must learn about the social and ethical responsibilities of designers and engineers and the importance of managing finite resources with care.

Department Aims

1. To foster awareness, understanding and expertise in those areas of creative thinking which can be expressed and developed through investigation and research, planning, designing, making and evaluating, working with materials and tools.

2. To encourage the acquisition of a body of knowledge applicable to solving practical / technological problems operating through processes of analysis, synthesis and realization.
3. To stimulate the development of a range of communication skills which are central to design, making and evaluation.
4. To stimulate the development of a range of designing and making skills.
5. To encourage students to relate their work to their personal interests and abilities. This should demand active and experimental learning based upon the use of materials in practical areas,
6. To promote the development of curiosity, enquiry, initiative, ingenuity, resourcefulness and discrimination.
7. To encourage technological awareness, foster attitudes of co-operation and social responsibility, and develop abilities to enhance the quality of the environment.
8. To stimulate the exercising of valued judgments of an aesthetic, technical, economic and moral nature.

Cambridge IGCSE (Forms 3 & 4) Course Overview

In Design and Technology, there are two options on offer and they both follow the Cambridge IGCSE Specifications:

• Graphic Products
• Systems and Control

Graphic Products

This area of study aims to develop the skills that designers use within the context of their design activities in the design studio. It also aims to develop an awareness of the importance of communication and modelling techniques concerned with promotion and illustration of ideas and their interrelationship with all stages in commercial manufacture and promotion.

Graphic products play a big role in one or more of the following or similar areas:

• Packaging
• Promotional design
• Display
• Product design
• Manuals
• Architectural modelling
• Corporate identity

Systems and Control

This area of study aims to develop the skills and knowledge used by designers within the context of a group of related technological resource areas: structures, mechanisms and electronics. Candidates need practical experience so that they can get a broad understanding of the three resource areas. By identifying how these areas interrelate, candidates can appreciate and exploit their role in designing and making controlled systems.

Project           

Each candidate must complete an individual project which centres on the option they have chosen from Part 2 of the syllabus. The project area is decided by the candidate with advice as appropriate from their teacher. Cambridge does not prescribe or recommend project areas. The project is internally marked by the teacher and externally moderated by Cambridge. Although each candidate bases their project on the option they have chosen, the nature of design and technology means that a candidate might want to include some knowledge, materials and skills from other options as well. This is permissible, but not required, and should be limited.

Candidates should produce work in the form of an A3-size folder and the ‘made product’. Use of CAD/CAM is encouraged where facilities exist. However, all relevant work should still be presented in hard copy as an A3-size folder; soft copy submission is not acceptable. The folder must include sufficient photographs of the made product, showing an overall view together with detailed views of evidence which support the award of marks for project assessment criteria. The made product itself is not to be submitted.

Cambridge AS/A LEVEL (Sixth Form) Course Overview

Cambridge International AS Level candidates take only Components 1 and 2. Cambridge International A Level candidates have two choices. Candidates who want to take the whole of the Cambridge International A Level qualification at the end of a course of study take all four components together. Candidates who want to take the Cambridge International A Level qualification in two stages take the Cambridge International AS Level first. If they pass Cambridge International AS Level, they then only need to take Components 3 and 4 in order to complete the Cambridge International A Level.

Candidates study compulsory core syllabus content at Cambridge International AS Level (tested in Component 1). At AS and A Levels they also have the opportunity to investigate and develop specialist areas of interest through the coursework projects (Components 2 and 4). The project is a significant part of the teaching and assessment requirements. Cambridge International A Level candidates choose one of the three following focus areas from Part 2 of the syllabus to study (tested in Component 3):

• Product design
• Practical technology
• Graphic products.