Design and Technology (DT)

Intent 

At New Close Primary School we value D&T as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum that is relevant to our rapidly changing world. We encourage children to use their creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve relevant problems within a variety of contexts.

Through our school vision, we strive to have children who ‘have a passion for life-long learning’ and ‘curiosity’ to explore different designers and develop a more rigorous understanding of D&T. We want our children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. Our D&T curriculum provides children with opportunities to research, represent their ideas, explore and investigate, develop their ideas, make a product and evaluate their work. Children will be exposed to a wide range of media including textiles, food and woodwork; through this, children will develop their skills, vocabulary and resilience.

D&T in our school is about inspiring the children in a rigorous and practical subject exposing them to high quality designers, engineers and inventors. We believe that high-quality D&T lessons will inspire children to think independently, innovatively and develop creative, procedural and technical understanding.

Implementation

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in DT, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. DT is taught as part of a half-termly topic focusing on knowledge and skills stated in 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England and, ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Each Design and Technology project will be taught weekly, in half term blocks or during Design and Technology mornings/ afternoons/ days, dependant on the needs of the project being worked on.

Planning
The D&T Association’s Projects on a Page scheme of work provides the framework for learning and teaching in Design and Technology.

• Three projects are planned over the year.
• In the EYFS, design and technology activities are planned; some initiated by the children and some led by adults.
• Children in their designing and making will apply knowledge and skills of: textiles, food, mechanical systems and structures.
• Electrical systems are taught in KS2.
• Every year group to do a food project per year.

All design, make and evaluate assignments provide learning opportunities for developing creativity through designing skills such as generating, exploring, modifying ideas through drawing, modelling with materials and problem solving.

All projects should include the three types of activity:

• Investigative, Disassemble and Evaluative Activities (IDEAs) where children learn from a range of existing products and find out about D&T in the wider world;
• Focused Practical Tasks (FPTs) where they are taught specific technical knowledge, designing skills and making skills;
• Design, Make and Evaluate Assignments (DMEA) where children create functional products with users and purposes in mind.

Impact 

We measure the impact of our curriculum through moderation in staff meetings where pupil’s work is scrutinised and there is the opportunity for dialogue between teacher’s to understand their class’s work. Learning walks will also be completed where pupil’s will be interviewed about their learning (pupil voice).

It is important that when assessing our impact, we refer back to the aims of both The National Curriculum and of our own curriculum.

Click here to see all our curriculum policies, including our DT Policy

Click here to see all our Long Term Plans, including DT

Click here to see all our Skills and Knowledge Progressions, including DT

Click here to see all our Vocabulary Progessions, including DT