Introduction
Do you enjoy creating, designing and making exciting products out of Textiles? Are you motivated, innovate and have a passion for fashion and trends. The Textile Design GCSE will develop your ability to design, decorate and construct high quality finished products that can be used for everyday use.
This course offers you the chance to explore your creative side. You will experiment with many textile techniques and study the work of famous fashion designers. The course offers you the opportunity to turn your design ideas into wearable fashion garments and accessories. This is a very successful subject with 95 % of pupils gaining an A* to C last year. Please don’t worry if you don’t know how to use a sewing machine as I will take you through it all.
The course
Unit 1: Design and Technology in the 21st Century Written examination
This unit is a mix of short answer, structured and extended writing questions assessing candidates’ knowledge and understanding of Textiles.
Unit 2: Design and make task Non-exam assessment
A sustained design and make task, based on a contextual challenge set by WJEC, assessing candidates’ ability to:
• Identify, investigate, analyze and outline design possibilities
• Design and make prototypes and evaluate their fitness for purpose
Assessment
The course is split into two units and both are worth 50% of the overall grade. Unit 1 is assessed externally and requires learners to sit a 2hr exam. This will test their knowledge and understanding of manufacturing processes, materials, tools and their understanding of past and present designers in the industry such as Laura Ashley, Stella McCartney and Orla Kiely.
Unit 2 is marked internally and will assess pupils on their ability to find a design problem, produce a design brief and research to develop their knowledge of the field that their product is based in.
They will then explore design sketches and techniques to provide solutions and test by assembling prototypes and models of their designs. Pupils will then produce a final prototype and evaluate.
Progression
A GCSE in this subject can lead on to Textiles Art A-Level here in Morriston. There are many career options in fashion and design, including textile and surface pattern, fashion and journalism, celebrity stylist, buyer, marketing, interior designer and theatre set and costume design. We have previous students that are now working as fashion buyers for SuperDry, designers for Tui and even an editor at Vogue.