Design Technology & Engineering

Prep DTE

introducing design technology & engineering

From the Stone Age and the dawn of man, when we first picked up crude stone tools, we have been defined by the products we make and the products we’ve made have defined us. Looking around any given room it is difficult to find something that has not been shaped by a designer or engineer. Design, Technology and Engineering (DTE) gives pupils a greater understanding of the designed and made world and encourages them to make positive improvements to the world around them. It provides pupils with the opportunity to design and make prototypes that solve real and relevant problems whilst considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. 

  

DTE is a creative, yet academically rigorous practical subject. It is a chance for pupils to put knowledge into practice and draw on a wide range of disciplines such as science, mathematics, computing and art. Pupils will learn how products and systems are manufactured and how to harness the benefits of technology. Pupils will consider the effect design and manufacturing has on society, natural resources and the environment. They will examine the work of others, looking to past and present designers for inspiration.  

Sedbergh Prep School - Green Car
Sedbergh Prep School - Design Technology Engineering

DTE is a fun and exciting subject where children develop strategic problem-solving skills and experiential learning takes place; pupils learn through doing. In DTE children learn to work collaboratively and take risks, becoming resourceful, enterprising, and capable citizens. The subject offers pupils an opportunity to explore without fear of failure. Thomas Edison exemplifies this trial and error approach in his quote: “I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. 

The vision for Design, Technology and Engineering at Casterton, Sedbergh Prep is to send pupils onto higher education instilled with a love of learning, a continued curiosity for the subject, and to inspire the next generation of inventors, innovators and problem solvers. 

You don't get told what to do; we have to think and design it for ourselves.

Year 4 pupil

The non-prescriptive teaching approach means that our children also experience practical difficulties during production. They are encouraged to devise ways to circumnavigate these problems or, indeed, to pre-empt potential issues in the early stages of design.

Parent

The design based problem-solving approach supports our pupils in developing their curiosity and love of learning through enquiry-based tasks and projects

Mrs Rebekah Dallas, Deputy Head