A calm, safe and welcoming place in which to work and learn.
A place where everyone supports each other to achieve.
A place we enjoy coming to each day.

At Childwall Abbey School (CAS), Design and Technology (D.T.) ( which incudes Resistant Materials and Food Technology), offers a varied and balanced educational experience, giving pupils the opportunity to develop and apply their knowledge, understanding and practical life skills. This is achieved using a variety of tools, machines, and materials and in different environments.  Delivery of the subject at C.A.S. is framed around the iterative process which has four defining principles in the National Curriculum:

• Design 
• Make
• Evaluate
• Technical Knowledge

The one inimitable feature of D.T. at CAS is that the pupils learn by doing. Pupils are given the opportunity through focussed practical tasks to apply what they have learned directly to a practical challenge. For our cohort of pupils, many of whom are visual learners is a very powerful and motivating experience. For most pupils moving to secondary school provides their first experience of a workshop environment. They are supported in this transition to ensure that they can carry out their work safely, a valuable, transferable life-skill. D.T. helps to develop social skills around self-regulation to ensure collective responsibility for a safe and efficient working environment.

Pupils participate in tasks which help to develop ideas, plan, and produce products to meet specific needs and evaluate their outcomes critically. Individualised projects give pupils opportunities to develop creative thinking and problem solving skills as individuals and as team members. These skills add significantly to pupils preparation for transition to the challenges of life beyond school.

Designing and making useable products gives our pupils a sense of achievement. They benefit from experiencing their own progress, taking responsibility for their own learning and encouraging others. Pupils enjoy the practical application of their ideas. Personal engagement with tasks offers the opportunity to improve attention span, patience, persistence, and commitment. Through D.T. our pupils may experience achievement at a level that they have seldom had, which contributes to improved behaviour for learning, wellbeing and self-esteem.

CAS pupils knowledge and understanding in D.T. links to subjects across the curriculum and allows pupil to apply numeracy, literacy and communication skills in practical ways. This consolidates skills from other lessons and reinforces learning with positive, real-life outcomes.

At C.A.S. we endeavour to prepare our pupils to participate in tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. We encourage pupils to think creatively and solve problems as individuals and as part of a team. Pupils learn about moral choices facing designers and manufacturers, when selecting materials for their projects. They consider sustainability, to understand and apply ways of conserving the earth’s resources.

Design and Technology at CAS helps prepare pupils to make the next step into employment, education, or training by giving them the opportunity to visit and experience these areas to observe and understand opportunities that may be available, for example in fashion, engineering, architecture, information technology, hospitality and even education.
Pupils achievements in Design and Technology are accredited through the Entry Level Pathways and through ASDAN.