Intent
At Fosse Primary School, children receive a design and technology curriculum which enables them to develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world. Using creativity and imagination, pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own needs and those of their intended consumer. Pupils learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative and enterprising. Through the DT curriculum, children should be inspired by engineers, designers, chefs and architects to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products with a real-life purpose. Skills are taught progressively to ensure that all children are able to explore, disassemble, develop and practice using a range of tools, equipment and materials as they move through the school. Evaluation is an integral part of the design process and allows children to adapt and improve their product, this is a key skill which they need throughout their life. D&T enables children to apply the knowledge and skills learned in other subjects, particularly Maths, Science, Computing and Art. Meaningful links are made within a cross curricular units of learning, giving children motivation and context for their learning. For example a Moon buggy for astronauts exploring our Solar System, a healthy sandwich for a family picnic.
Implementation:
How Design Technology is taught.
All teaching of DT should follow the evaluate existing products, focussed practical tasks (practise and develop use of a range of tools, equipment and materials), create a prototype (mock-up), design, make and evaluate cycle. Each stage should be rooted in technical knowledge. The design process should be rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning. While making, children should be given choice and a range of tools to choose freely from. To evaluate, children should be able to evaluate their own products against a design criteria. Each of these steps should be rooted in technical knowledge and vocabulary. DT should be taught to a high standard, where each of the stages should be given equal weight. There should be evidence in each of these stages in the DT books, which should also develop to show clear progression across the key stages as they are passed up through each year group.
In KS1 this looks like:
Disassemble:
Explore and evaluate high quality existing products.
Focussed practical tasks:
Children are taught and practise safe use of a range of tools, equipment and materials.
Design:
- Design should be rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to the learning.
- Planned through appropriate formats: drawing, templates, communication and mock-ups.
Make:
- Children should be given a range of tools for their projects to choose from.
- Children should use a range of materials and components; textiles, construction equipment and ingredients.
Evaluate: .
- Evaluate their own products against design criteria.
- suggest improvements based on design criteria.
- create improved products based on their evaluations.
In KS2 this looks like:
Disassemble:
Explore and evaluate high quality existing products.
Focussed practical tasks:
Children are taught and practise safe use of a range of tools, equipment and materials.
Design:
- Rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to the learning.
- Researched designs based on functional, appealing products with purpose.
- Planned by appropriate methods; annotated sketches, exploded diagrams, cross-sectional diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer aided design.
Make:
- Children can select from a wider range of tools than KS1.
- Children should use, combine and select a wider range of materials and components; textiles, construction equipment and ingredients.
Evaluate:
- Evaluations should be in comparison to existing products.
- Children should evaluate against a design criteria.
- Children should understand how key events, inventors, designers and individuals have helped shape design and technology globally.
Fosse Primary School Design and Technology Progression (MISSING FILE)
National curriculum design and technology (MISSING FILE)