Hello and welcome to this pre-recorded event for GCE Food Technology.
In this session we will be covering both 6FT01 and 6FT04. Therefore, this is presented as
a summary of feedback for both coursework units.
To help you get the most out of this feedback, you may want to have the following documents:
the specification, assessment criteria and Principal Moderators reports for 2015 handy
as we will refer to them during the session.
This pre-recorded event is designed to support teachers with the marking and internal standardisation
of this internally assessed unit.
The Edexcel GCE in Design and Technology: Food Technology is designed for use in schools
and colleges. It is part of a suite of GCE qualifications offered by Edexcel. This qualification
focuses on key areas that the food industry has to consider, including:
Quality of food. Processing of food.
Packaging and labeling. Nutrition value and contribution to dietary
control and sustained good health. Health and safety.
Another key factor covered in this qualification is sustainability. New products have to provide
solutions rather than add to the existing problems of extraction and use of natural
resources, pollution from manufacturing and the disposal of large amounts of waste products.
Edexcel's GCE in Design and Technology: Food Technology seeks to:
Develop students' knowledge, understanding, skills and application for designing food
products. Develop a student's ability to produce food
products that are fit for purpose, satisfy wants or needs, and enhance our day-to-day
lives. Give students the opportunity to demonstrate
their design and technology capability. Develop skills in planning, research, analysis,
product development, project planning and evaluation.
These are the grade boundaries from the 2015 examination series and the raw marks.
6FT01 Portfolio of skills consists of three discreet separate tasks:
Product Investigation, Product Design, Product Manufacture
Presented on this slide are the assessment criteria for 6FT01: Portfolio of creative
skills. Over the following slides we will explore best practice in this unit of work.
Slide 8 6FT01 Good practice:
Three discreet, separate tasks should be presented: Investigation, Design and Manufacture.
Specification points should relate to form; function; user requirements; performance requirements;
scale of production and cost.
They should be measurable and justified.
There should be a comparison with a similar product using the same criteria identified
in their technical specification.
Choosing two almost identical food products is inappropriate as specification statements
regarding both are likely to be the same when comparing and contrasting under the same headings.
It is advisable that candidates try to choose similar products that are focused on different
user groups, have different performance and user requirements and are manufactured from
different ingredients. Good examples of this were a luxury branded chocolate and pear trifle
compared to a supermarket 'value' strawberry trifle; a chilled fish pie with potato topping
compared to a frozen fish pie with gratin topping, tinned fruit salad cocktail product
compared to a ready prepared/ready to eat chilled fresh fruit salad.
The choice of product is crucial to the success of the investigation. Consider the following
areas when guiding candidates on their selection: A number of components 3 is a good guide.
Interesting range of ingredients Consider the storage of the product: chilled/frozen/canned
or vacuum packed Method of eating: snack, main meal, dessert,
drink Can the product be eaten hot and cold?
Are there any allergy /special diet considerations? Is it a familiar product to the students?
Ready made compared to ready to assemble? Potato versus cereal
Comparing different protein foods: fish pie compared to a pastry/vegetable/cottage pie
scenario?
This slide is part of a product investigation and shows how the student has analysed the
lasagne and then presented a comparison between the frozen and chilled lasagnes. One product
is a value branded item, the other a high end product. Therefore, the products offer
a suitable degree of comparison.
Sharing good practice helps us to identify the key features of a successful product investigation.
Sharing best practice and moderator guidance to centres: Some thoughts:
Name the method of production for their chosen product.
Identify and describe the processes involved in the manufacture of their chosen product.
Processes should be justified for use in the product.
Suggest one alternative method of production that could have been used.
Advantages/disadvantages of processes should link to the product and should not be generic.
'Environmental impact' should focus on the use of the processes identified.
Some candidates tended to do less well because of the following areas shown on the slide.
The weakest part of this section remains the environmental impact of the manufacturing
processes. However, those centres that explored CO2 emissions, use of energy to power machinery,
water consumption during food preparation, and use of standard components on the production
line to reduce production processes and applied them to their chosen product were largely
successful in this section.
Product Design good practice Here, we are looking at the areas that allow
candidates to achieve the highest marks in the second task: Product design. There continues
to be evidence of much innovation, creativity and flair, with high level design and development
skills and a range of communication techniques supported with good application of knowledge
and understanding relating to food, nutrition and product development.
As in past years, the most successful centres embraced design and development work with
clear, concise design briefs, and technical, measurable specifications that influenced
the choice and design of the practical work. Design intentions and decisions were recorded
with clarity and justification, leading onto final products that showed significant differences
to the original idea. Good photography aided communication.
As in previous years, virtually all centres chose to do a separate manufacturing task,
which resulted in either a range of different practical items being made for this task or
a wide range of skills and techniques presented for one complex high level food product (different
to the product design task).
By working on the three separate discreet tasks, candidates could present a wide range
of skills, techniques for different food products, thus producing an effective portfolio of creative
skills. This is the best way forward.
On this slide, please find the areas of good practice to share with your students.
A2 6FT04 Commercial design will be our next focus.
6FT04 assessment criteria are shown on this slide. As a brief over view, the following
comment is shared: Coursework foods products are becoming more
inventive as a wide range of cultural cuisines from around the world are being used as inspiration
for commercial design projects.
For 6FT04, these are the main areas of study and we will now take a look at each one.
Candidates are required to adopt a commercial design approach to their work, reflecting
how a professional designer might deal with a design proposal and its resolution when
working for a client/user group. This means that consultation between designer and client
should take place at key points in the design/make process. Where this designer/client relationship
was well developed, the whole design and make process was enhanced and justified. A client
/ user group must be integral within the coursework to allow focus and feedback throughout the
coursework. Unfortunately, for some candidates, it was seen only as a necessity for meeting
the requirements of the assessment criteria, and remained a passive activity, with little
focus.
An interesting and topical range of commercial design work was presented on a wide variety
of topics including the festival and street foods, farm shops and cafes, deli food boxes,
pop up restaurants, menu kits/boxes, celebration foods and luxury food products for a specific
event or point of sale.
Exemplar: Selective, focused analysis with design needs clarified is essential for success.
Research should be relevant, concise and useful to the design brief; including: questionnaire,
disassembly and secondary research to support the writing of the specification .Research
must be linked to the design brief.
The analysis, research and specification sections are essential to the success so the rest of
coursework. Here we can see a list of what worked well and what didn't in these sections.
Good choice of skillful practical work is essential for high level making marks.
Consider the number of skills and techniques in a food product and the complexity of the
method.
Thumb nail drawings show manufacture. Annotation supports knowledge and understanding in the
making section of coursework.
High level exemplar responses in the making section of commercial design frequently used
a good combination of these skills. Good photography aided communication marks.
Section E Use of equipment: Where candidates had selected simplistic, unchallenging practical
work it was not possible to demonstrate their ability to use a range of equipment, even
if this was with skill and accuracy.
Quality section key points. As in previous years, there was evidence of
some very high level work seen containing many components and skills that allowed candidates
to demonstrate creativity, flair, accuracy and precision. The importance of high quality
photographic evidence throughout the design, development and manufacture work is obvious.
Food styling, structure and quality of photographic evidence are making steady progress and many
centres are adept at insisting that candidates comply with this requirement.
Complexity and demand. As before, this varied enormously in 2015,
ranging from simplistic, unchallenging design and manufacture work to high level advanced
skills, worthy of A2 level showing challenge, demand, accuracy and precision in their use
and execution within food products. To access the higher marks for this criterion, a challenging
food product should contain a minimum of four technical component parts to allow the candidates
to demonstrate the range of technical skills needed for advanced level food technology.
A summary of best practice is shown on this slide.
Statistics
Reform
Thank you