Hurstmere School

GCSE Design and Technology will prepare students to participate confidently and successfully in an increasingly technological world. Students will gain awareness and learn from wider influences on Design and Technology including historical, social, cultural, environmental, and economic factors. Students will get the opportunity to work creatively when designing and making and apply technical and practical expertise. This course allows students to study core technical and designing and making principles, including a broad range of design processes, materials, techniques, and equipment. They will also study specialist technical principles in greater depth.  

Core technical principle:

To make effective design choices, students will need a breadth of core technical knowledge and understanding that consists of new and emerging technologies, energy generation and storage, developments in new materials, systems approach to designing, mechanical devices, materials, and their working properties. 

Specialist technical principles: 

All students should develop an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the following specialist technical principles: selection of materials or components, forces and stresses, ecological and social footprint, sources, and origins, using and working with materials, stock forms, types and sizes, scales of production, specialist techniques and processes, surface treatments and finishes. 

Design and making principles:  

They will need to demonstrate and apply knowledge and understanding of designing and making principles in relation to areas of investigation, primary and secondary data, environmental, social, and economic challenge, the work of others, design strategies, communication of design ideas, prototype development, selection of materials and component, material management, specialist tools and equipment, specialist techniques and processes. 

Assessment structure: 

Written Exam – 2 hours  
Marks – 100 
GCSE – 50% 

Non-exam assessment (NEA) Design portfolio – 30-35 hours  
Marks - 100 
GCSE - 50% 

This course lends itself to a career/learning pathway in a range of design orientated areas such as A-Level Product Design and degree level. Students with this qualification can follow a career path to biomedical engineering, measurement & control engineering, technical & engineering careers in radio & TV, carpentry & joinery, aircraft engineering, furniture design, three-dimensional design, fashion designer, industrial designer, product designer, commercial designer, graphic design, architecture and teaching Design & Technology. 

This structure has been designed to develop in learners the knowledge and understanding related to a range of hospitality and catering providers; how they operate and what they must consider to be successful. There is the opportunity to learn about issues related to nutrition and food safety and how they affect successful hospitality and catering operations. In this qualification, learners will have the opportunity to develop some food preparation and cooking skills as well as transferable skills of problem solving, organisation and time management, planning and communication.  

Through the two units, learners will gain an overview of the hospitality and catering industry and the type of job roles that may be available to assist them in making choices about progression. Successful completion of this qualification could support entry to qualifications that develop specific skills for work in hospitality and catering. 

The WJEC Level 1/2 Vocational Award in Hospitality and Catering is made up of two mandatory units:  

• Unit 1 The Hospitality and Catering Industry (Written paper worth 40% of grade)
• Unit 2 Hospitality and Catering in Action (Non-Exam Assessment worth 60% of grade) 

The grading breakdown for the course is as follows: 

• Level 1 Pass, Level 1 Merit, Level 1 Distinction and Level 1 Distinction*.
• Level 2 Pass, Level, 2 Merit, Level 2 Distinction and Level 2 Distinction*.  

Hospitality and Catering is a dynamic, vibrant, and innovative sector delivering vital jobs, growth and investment in the heart of our local communities - important culturally, socially and economically. Businesses which make up the hospitality sector include hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, pubs and bars, leisure parks, stadia, nightclubs, contract caterers, food service operators, entertainment, and visitor attractions.

Employment can range from waiting staff, receptionists and catering assistants to chefs, hotel and bar managers, and food technologists working for supermarket chains. Some of these roles require further education and training either through apprenticeships or further and higher education.