Dear Trainee,

PGCE Secondary Design and Technology: pre-programme preparation

Welcome to the PGCE Secondary Design and Technology Programme in the Department of Education at the University of the West of England. Well done on gaining an offer of a place on the programme and I hope you are looking forward to beginning your journey to becoming a successful Design and Technology teacher.

We want you to be prepared before you start the programme in September and have a number of activities we would like you to complete to help you with that preparation. We want you to begin to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills that you will need and be ready to make the most of your PGCE year. You should access the new Teachers’ Standards and read them carefully.https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/teachers%20standards.pdf You will need to demonstrate that you can meet all of those Standards by the end of your PGCE Programme but we have put a particular focus on the following standard in your pre-course preparation:

TS 3 Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge • have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupils’ interest in the subject, and address misunderstandings • demonstrate a critical understanding of developments in the subject and curriculum areas, and promote the value of scholarship • demonstrate an understanding of and take responsibility for promoting high standards of literacy, articulacy and the correct use of standard English, whatever the teacher’s specialist subject

Come and dress up with us on our cross curricular days!

We hope to meet many of you if and when you attend the Subject Knowledge Enhancement Course (SKE) in late August, early September but all of you (including those who attend the SKE) need to complete these tasks.

Showcase your designing and making skills at the D and T and Art and Design Exhibition!

Developing Subject Knowledge in Design and Technology (TS3)

There are 2 routes to follow in training to be a Design and Technology teacher:

D and T Product Design and D and T Food Technology.

As a trainee teacher of D and T : Product design you will follow one main specialism chosen from Resistant Materials, Textile Technology or Systems and Control (up to an including post 16 teaching) and then you will need develop the other two to teach at KS3 (up to Y9). If you are training to be a D and T: Food Technology teacher (up to an including post 16 teaching) you will then choose ONE specialism to teach up to and including Y9. We follow the DATA (2003) Minimum Competences to teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School model as shown here but have adapted it to suit the needs of the contemporary D and T Teacher. We are also offering lots more opportunities to develop your understanding of the Art and Design curriculum too – another exciting development this year.

We have planned a wide range of Design and Technology activities for the PGCE programme that have been designed to help you to stimulate interest, enthusiasm, confidence and deep understanding in your future students. You will also need to update and extend your own knowledge of your main and second specialist D and T subjects and in ICT/CAD/CAM/CAE. By the end of the programme your subject knowledge will need to include a very good understanding of GCSE and other post 14/16 programmes including A level. You should begin work on this as soon as you can, before you become immersed in the programme itself. When you join the programme in September you will be asked to audit

your subject knowledge to identify strengths and weaknesses and to write an action plan for areas to develop further. If you are attending the SKE you will have already begun the audit and action plan process and begun to build a portfolio of evidence.

Tasks to undertake:

Task 1. Purchase (or better still recycle) 2 A4 lever Arch files and label one TS3 Portfolio Subject Knowledge Development and the other Professional Development Module : PD and D and T Seminars. (You will need lots more files once you start the programme but these are to get you started).

Task 2. Please acquire the following texts and undertake the suggested pre course reading:

Capel S, Leask M & Turner T (eds) (2009) Learning to Teach in the Secondary School (5th edition) London: Routledge (general Professional Studies core text) Read the first chapter and browse through generally.

Write a one page A4 chronology of your own education and educational experiences to date highlighting where you enjoyed your experiences and identifying the reasons why. Place in your PS folder.

Task 3. You should familiarise yourself thoroughly with the content of the National Curriculum for Design and Technology, which can be found at the http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/secondary/Down load the full Programmes of Study for KS3 and 4 and place in your TS3 File.

Task 4. Teaching D and T: key texts

Owen-Jackson G (ed) (2008) Learning to Teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School. Read the first chapter and then those chapters relevant to your chosen specialist areas. Make some brief notes on your readings. Place in PS File

Rutland, M (1997) Teaching Food Technology David Fulton. Read chapters 1 and 2 and make brief noted on your readings. Place in PS File.

Design and Technology subject knowledge development choose the relevant texts and browse

Resistant Materials – Caborn C, Mould I, Cave J (1989) Design and Technology Nelson

Food Technology – Proudlove K (2001) The Science and Technology of Foods Forbes Publications

Textile Technology - Stephanie K. Holland (1987) All about Fabrics Oxford

Systems and Control - Caborn C, Mould I, Cave J (1989) Design and Technology Nelson

Task 5. We also suggest you access the following reports and read them very thoroughly:

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Education/Curriculum/Design-and-technology/Secondary/Education-for-a-technologically-advanced-nation-Design-and-Technology-in-schools-2004-07

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Documents-by-type/Thematic-reports/Meeting-technological-challenges/(language)/eng-GB

http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DFE-00031-2011

For those of you with Food Technology as one of your specialisms you should also read the following:

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Education/Providers/Secondary-schools/Food-technology-in-secondary-schools

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Documents-by-type/Thematic-reports/Healthy-eating-in-schools

Task 6. You should also access the websites of the examination groups and look at the relevant Design and Technology subject specifications at all examination levels.

www.aqa.org.uk , www.edexcel.org.uk, www.ocr.org.uk, www.wjec.co.uk.

Some other useful websites for subject knowledge:

http://www.helenhudspith.com/

http://www.technologystudent.com/

http://www.nutrition.org.uk/

http://www.tep.org.uk/

http://www.free-teaching-resources.co.uk/design_technology.shtml

ICT/CAD/CAM/CAE skills that you will need include:

Basic word processing, using different font styles and sizes, cutting and pasting, spell checking for writing assignments ; when working with pupils, importing images from the Internet, clipart or scanned images and using tables and graphs, for the production of worksheets and other resources; databases and spreadsheets for recording marks, targets and comments on students’ progress; PowerPoint for presentations. Video cameras and video playback are commonly used, as are digital cameras and interactive whiteboards. You will also be expected to use CAD/CAM/CAE as part of both your PGCE programme and teaching.

Task 7. If you can, download the following demo version of 2D Design a popular CAD software package for schools and try it. http://www.techsoft.co.uk/products/software/2D_Design_V2.asp

We will be running CAD/CAM Basic Skills workshops for you as part of the PGCE programme. I recommend that you purchase at lease one memory stick and bring it with you from day one of the course - it will be invaluable in planning lessons, downloading and sharing

resources with other PGCE trainees and storing your profiling documents accessibly to show your tutors.

Task 8. Design and Technology Association

You should join the Design and Technology Association www.data.org.uk and I recommend you subscribe to receive the magazine ‘Designing’. It is full of ideas, articles and resources for D and T teachers contributed by currently practising D and T teachers and teacher educators and will connect you with the D and T teaching community of practice.

Task 9. Current issues in education and teaching

You should begin to focus on current debates in education, particularly in the teaching and learning of Design and Technology and the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) subjects Relevant articles appear regularly in the Times Educational Supplement (Fridays) and in the Guardian (Education on Tuesdays) newspapers.

We suggest too that you try and visit the Victoria and Albert museum and the Design Museum in London. Visit museums near your home too as they often have very relevant collections for an intending Design and Technology teacher!

We look forward to working with you in September. We will be contacting you all by e-mail before the programme starts with more information and activities. If you have changed your e-mail address since you applied through GTTR please contact Sally Bassett at the e-mail address below with your new one. If you need any further information or advice, please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail sally.bassett@uwe.ac.uk

See you on the SKE!

Yours sincerely,

Sally BassettPGCE Secondary Design and Technology Group Tutor