Making safely — and what needs a workshop
Design & Technology · GCSE · The School
The honest limit
Everything in this subject except the making itself can be learned here: designing, materials, systems, food science, evaluation, exam technique. The making cannot. Cutting, drilling, soldering, heat treatment and hot cooking need a supervised workshop or kitchen with the right guards, extraction and someone trained standing there. No online lesson can substitute for that, and this one does not pretend to.
Risk assessment
For each operation: name the hazard, say who could be harmed and how, and state the control. Cutting on a bandsaw — hazard: contact with the blade; control: guard set to the workpiece, push stick, trained supervision, no loose sleeves. A risk assessment written honestly is a required part of the portfolio and a genuinely useful habit.
Design for what exists
A design you cannot make with the tools, materials and time available is not finished. Check tolerances your equipment can hold, joints your skills can cut, and stock sizes actually sold. Professionals design for the factory they have; students should design for the workshop they have.
Task: cut 3 mm plywood. HAZARD: the blade. WHO: me, and anyone standing nearby. LIKELIHOOD: medium. SEVERITY: high. CONTROL: use a bench hook, clamp the work, keep the free hand behind the blade, and cut with the work supported on both sides. Notice that the control CHANGED the method — clamping and a bench hook were not in the original plan. An assessment that changes nothing was not really done.