Design & Technology
Design & Technology allows our pupils to be creative, imaginative, and inspired.
The Design Lab always takes a hands-on, down-to-earth approach to all student projects. We work on an individual basis through all our students' design aspects during the innovation journey, sharing our wealth of experience and manufacturing expertise with our students, however big or small the project.
Design Lab-Oratory
“There’s no learning without trying lots of ideas and failing lots of times.” Johnathan Ive
About
The Design Laboratory is one of the fastest growing and most exciting departments at The Oratory.
Our department contains a well-supported workshop, which facilitates the manipulation of metals, woods, and plastics, as well as an expanding CAD and CAM facility We are constantly striving to explore new methods of manufacture and materials.
Our curriculum encourages use of skills and knowledge gained within other subjects with problem solving at our curriculum's core and the understanding that through failure can come success.
Mr Nick Mills - Head of Design and Technology
Curriculum
At GCSE and A Level we strive to inspire our students to produce innovative designs that are inspirational, aspirational, accessible, and desirable. Eschewing one set prescribed formula, we favour a collaborative approach with our students, working as closely, or as independently, as each individual requires, tailoring our teaching to get the best results for each individual student. The key skills our students aim to develop are:
- innovative problem-solving abilities;
- cognitive skills, in the production of high quality prototypes;
- independent research and analysis skills;
- independent time management
- the ability to identify needs, wants, and opportunities;
- the ability to combine practical skills with precision;
- an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues, function, and industrial practices;
- an inquisitive nature, being unafraid to ask why or how;
- the ability to reflect and evaluate.
It is our strongly-held belief that our students should have understood the environmental impacts of the products they produce, as well as the nuts and bolts of manufacturing, in order to tackle the ever growing global environmental concerns.