Design and technology is not a theoretical subject, invented as an alternative to academic, mind-stretching subjects for which pupils sometimes find little practical application.

It is a subject based entirely on the importance of its own practical applications.

The value of its practical applications is self-apparent from looking at its physical end products.

Looking further than the end products themselves, it is apparent that design and technology has its own scholastic discipline which, unusually for schools, can be freely interpreted to cover whatever problem needs to be solved. This academic freedom does not imply a need only for low-level thinking skills; just the opposite. Unknown problems will bring up requirements for a student to develop whatever knowledge and understanding and physical and intellectual skills are necessary for the task in hand.

These web-pages are based on what is observed to be happening, in practice, in school classrooms, not on some theoretical model of an idealised subject.

This section of the site is based on practical evidence and sets out:

• The discipline of design and technology
• Design and technology and the discipline of the national curriculum
• Capabilities in the discipline of design and technology
• A teacher's perspective on design and technology.