Design and Technology

Intent

At St Margaret's Primary School, we recognise and value the importance of Design and Technology as a subject that stimulates creativity, imagination and problem solving. We believe it is an important part of a broad and balanced curriculum as it provides children with the opportunities to develop skills and express their individuality.

Our Design and technology curriculum aims to inspire pupils to be innovative and creative thinkers who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation, and evaluation. We want pupils to develop the confidence to take risks, through drafting design concepts, modelling, and testing and to be reflective learners who evaluate their work and the work of others.

Thorough our DT curriculum we aim to build an awareness of the impact of design and technology on our lives and encourage pupils to become resourceful, enterprising citizens who will have the skills to contribute to future design advancements. 

Implementation

The Design and technology National curriculum outlines the three main stages of the design process: design, make and evaluate. Each stage of the design process is underpinned by technical knowledge which encompasses the contextual, historical, and technical understanding required for each strand. Cooking and nutrition* has a separate section, with a focus on specific principles, skills and techniques in food, including where food comes from, diet and seasonality.

We teach Design Technology with five core strands that run throughout. These are:
● Design
● Make
● Evaluate
● Technical knowledge

Our Design and technology curriculum has a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these strands and key areas across each year group - see the document below. 

Our National curriculum overviews show which of our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the four strands.

Our Progression of skills shows the skills and knowledge that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.

Cooking and nutrition is given a particular focus in the National curriculum and we have made this one of our 5 key areas that pupils revisit throughout their time in primary school:

● Cooking and nutrition
● Mechanisms/ Mechanical systems
● Structures
● Textiles
● Electrical systems (KS2 only)

Through our Design and technology scheme, pupils respond to design briefs and scenarios that require consideration of the needs of others, developing their skills in the 5 key areas.

Each of our key areas follows the design process (design, make and evaluate) and has a particular theme and focus from the technical knowledge or cooking and nutrition section of the curriculum. Our curriculum is a spiral curriculum, with key areas revisited again and again with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revisit and build on their previous learning.

Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including practical hands-on, computer-based and inventive tasks. This variety means
that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles. Differentiation is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and
opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. 

Impact

The impact of our DT teaching is monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. After the implementation of our DT curriculum, our children should leave school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and be innovative and resourceful members of society.

Our children will:
➔ Understand the functional and aesthetic properties of a range of materials and resources.
➔ Understand how to use and combine tools to carry out different processes for shaping, decorating, and manufacturing products.
➔ Build and apply a repertoire of skills, knowledge and understanding to produce high quality, innovative outcomes, including models, prototypes, CAD, and products to fulfil the needs of users, clients, and scenarios.
➔ Understand and apply the principles of healthy eating, diets, and recipes, including key processes, food groups and cooking equipment.
➔ Have an appreciation for key individuals, inventions, and events in history and of today that impact our world.
➔ Recognise where our decisions can impact the wider world in terms of community, social and environmental issues.
➔ Self-evaluate and reflect on learning at different stages and identify areas to improve.
➔ Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Design and technology.