KS4 Curriculum Intention

At Key Stage 4, we deliver the OCR Cambridge Nationals Engineering qualifications in Design, Manufacture, and Systems. 

These qualifications have been newly developed and relaunched for first teaching in 2024. We are proud to share that Mr. Shephard was selected to collaborate with the exam board in the development of these qualifications, and we are excited to be delivering them. 

We have chosen to offer this suite of qualifications because they provide students with a valuable opportunity to study and access Engineering at Level 2. They are designed to enable students to: 

• Understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of Engineering, 

• Develop both theoretical knowledge and practical skills that are applicable to real-life contexts and work environments, 

• Think creatively, innovatively, analytically, logically, and critically, 

• Build independence and confidence through the use of a range of skills, processes, tools, techniques, and machinery common in the engineered world. 

These qualifications provide a strong foundation for students wishing to pursue further study or careers in Engineering and related fields. 

We have also selected these qualifications because they establish a firm basis of knowledge and understanding for progression onto our Level 3 provision, apprenticeships, and university engineering qualifications. The direct links between these qualifications and our KS5 curriculum allow us to spiral students' substantive and disciplinary knowledge, skills, techniques, and processes effectively from KS4 to KS5. 

Our curriculum enables students to continually build and strengthen their schema, develop a broad and deep understanding of key engineering techniques, concepts, processes, and skills, and effectively identify and address misconceptions along the way. 

---

Exam (KS4) Curriculum Knowledge Covered

We deliver our engineering curriculum in a sequence which allows the students to gain understanding of fundamental techniques, processes and knowledge which is then built upon in other units such as; ‘Developing understanding of technical drawings and health and safety before moving onto hand fabrication’ or ‘Understanding manual machining techniques before moving onto CAD and CAM’ We deliver all engineering qualifications in a parallel sequence which allows us to interleave units and topics across the department but also with other subject areas such as materials and their properties with Science 

---

Mutually Beneficial Curriculum Connections

Lots of overlap between Maths and Science, for example the teaching of units of measure in Y10 HT1 is then used practically in Engineering, materials and their properties is in Engineering and Chemistry (periodic table). Electricity and electronics is in engineering and Science. Geometry skills delivered in maths is used in Manufacture, Design and Product Design (A level) We also aid the WVMI curriculum through globalisation, quality standards and the rule of law.