Design Technology

Design & Technology

Intent

Design Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject that encourages children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team. We encourage children to use their creativity and imagination, to design, make and evaluate products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. We aim to link work of other disciplines such as mathematics, science, computing and art across a range of inspiring topic themes. We aim to prepare children to deal with tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. As a school where we all strive to be our best, we believe that all learning should be adapted to the needs of all children (SEN, EAL, more able, disadvantaged) and that the curriculum should be carefully planned to take account of everyone in the class so that we can all ‘Do something beautiful for God, each and every day’.

Implementation

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear knowledge and skills progression through a variety of creative and practical activities that are rooted in real life. This ensures that knowledge and skills are built on year by year and sequenced to maximize learning. When engaged in the Design Technology the school follows the following design cycle:

Design – use research to develop design criteria to design for a specific audience and purpose and communicate these ideas through a range of media including discussion, annotated drawings, sketches and models.

Make – use a wide range of tools and equipment with accuracy to cut, shape and join materials and use a wide range of materials, ingredients and components according to their qualities.

Evaluate – review and reflect upon their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work.

The aim is to develop the children’s technical knowledge, vocabulary and key skills in relation to structural design, mechanical and electrical systems, food production and nutrition.

Children learn to take risks, be reflective, innovative, enterprising and resilient. Through the evaluation of past and present technology they can reflect upon the impact of Design Technology on everyday life and the wider world.

Children may well be asked to solve problems independently or as part of a team. In Design Technology this approach allows pupils to develop ownership of their learning and also to learn how to support one another towards a challenging goal.

Impact

Through our teaching of Design and Technology we aim to provide our children with the ability to develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world. Be bale to build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users. Critique, evaluate and test ideas and products and the work of others. We wanr the children to understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to prepare food. We think all pupils will develop their knowledge and understanding of – mechanisms, structures, products and applications, quality, health & safety, vocabulary, materials, components and control.

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