Product Design and Food Technology

Food Preparation and Nutrition Intent

Our food curriculum ensures our students have the essential knowledge they need to prepare food safely and create nutritious meals. Healthy eating is a key factor in all Food Preparation and Nutrition lessons throughout KS3 and 4, so that students know what the function of different food types are and how the needed nutrients serve their bodies. This will form good habits for them in their lives, leading them to be healthier and have a better diet throughout their lives, reducing the risk of diet related illness later in life.  

Our students are taught how to make a varied selection of sweet and savoury dishes using a range of food preparation methods including weighing and measuring, grating, peeling, rubbing-in and baking. They learn how to use all parts of a cooker and how to follow and adapt recipes so that they will be confident home cooks in the future. Students learn how to change meals to suit different people's needs, such as pregnancy, food needs associated with a range of religions, food intolerances, allergies and preferences. 

We teach practical skills alongside principles like budgeting, storing food and learning to cook from scratch. We encourage students to be creative with their dishes, including considering a range of sensory aspects and good presentation of their food to be proud of and to take a sense of accomplishment from.  Students are taught about where food comes from, the journey from field to fork including food miles and their impact on the environment. 

For those who may be considering a career in the food industry, we teach knife skills, food safety and hygiene and how to thoroughly evaluate the food they produce, through coursework projects for example. 

How our subject contributes to personal development  

Students have the chance to develop their talent and interests in Food through our normal lessons and our cookery club. British Values are taught through a project relating to food from other cultures and animal welfare, including meat and egg production.  

The importance of other people’s beliefs and religions are taught in relation to why people eat what they eat. Where food comes from and how it is transported is addressed as an environmental aspect of the course too. Mental and physical health run throughout the Food curriculum as we place importance on feeding our bodies with the nutrition we need and the importance of looking after ourselves. 

Enrichment Opportunities and Wider Support 

• Coursework support after school 

• Cookery club after school 

Technology (Product Design) Intent

At Uplands, we encourage students to challenge design norms and push the boundaries of currently accepted design. Through a range of exciting and engaging lessons, our students develop the ability to think critically, design new creative products and to analyse and evaluate designs to a high level. Our young designers are encouraged to think positively and to take a playful and creative approach to design. Not everything they attempt will work and they learn to see mistakes as opportunities to learn, building their resilience and then a sense of achievement. 

Every student at Uplands learns how to measure and mark out a range of materials. They learn where materials come from and understand how things around us are made. Our students are taught to be eco aware and to consider the impact of products they design and things that they use in their lives to make the world a better place. Students are taught about social, moral and economical factors relating to design, including learning about designers from different countries and times to enrich their knowledge and understanding of the things around them.  

We believe that students should learn through play and exploration, and that every student should leave every lesson feeling stronger and more knowledgeable than when they entered the classroom. In our lessons, we develop skills for 2D and 3D drawing before learning how to make our creations from paper and boards, plastics, timbers and metals using safe and appropriate tools and machinery. As a team we want our students to progress in life with their eyes open in terms of design and manufacture, with a love of design that they can choose to pursue professionally or to enjoy for themselves. 

How our subject contributes to personal development  

We teach our students to be ethical consumers, ensuring they have knowledge of sustainability, recycling and the impact of production on the environment so that they will be active and responsible citizens in the future. We teach students to be aware of equality, diversity and inclusion through lessons about key designers and their backgrounds and challenges they have faced and overcome, inspiring our learners. 

Enrichment Opportunities and Wider Support 

• Trip to Design Museum in London, 

• Visitors from Brighton University with STEM, 

• Coursework support sessions after school, 

• D&T Club.