Design Technology
Design Technology Intent
At Weeke Primary School, we are designers and technologists! Our intention is to provide opportunities to solve real and relevant problems, allowing children to become informed users of products and develop fundamental life skills. Fun, memorable experiences will unlock their potential to be the designers and innovators of tomorrow. We deliver genuine design and technology experiences for all children which involve designing and making products for a specific user and purpose.
Our children are encouraged to take risks and use their critical thinking skills to find innovative solutions to problems both individually and collaboratively. Children develop an interest and understanding of the ways in which people from the past and present have used design to meet their needs.
Children at Weeke Primary School are inspired to believe there are no limits to their ambition and can grow up to be chefs, carpenters, engineers and architects or innovative designers in gaming, fashion, smart homes and autonomous cars.
Design Technology Implementation
At Weeke Primary School we follow an approach in design and technology that enables all our learners to build strong knowledge and skills in the subject. High quality teaching and learning is delivered to children through a cyclical approach for each strand within design and technology. This cyclical approach is illustrated below in our design and technology ‘blueprint’:
Design Technology Blueprint
Alongside our blueprint of implementation, a robust and clear progression within the curriculum is mapped out. This enables our children to build on prior knowledge and language related to the subject as well as covering progression within all national curriculum areas. See following documents:
Design Technology Coverage and Progression
- D&T Yearly Overview Jan 2024.pdf
- Coverage and Progression through all strands - updated Jan 2024.pdf
EYFS
Through Expressive Arts and Design and Physical Development children are encouraged to construct and create purposefully selecting tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials they are using. Children learn through first-hand experiences which involve putting their ideas into practice to develop an awareness and understanding of the possibilities and limitations of different materials. Practitioners encourage children to explore, observe, solve problems, think critically, make decisions, and talk about why they have made their decisions as they design and create. Children’s natural creativity is fostered and opportunities for investigation, designing and making are offered daily within our provision, which enables children to learn a great deal about their world.
Design and Technology in Early Years at Weeke
Impact
The effective planning and teaching of Design and Technology by our staff, which is in line with our progression (incorporating all of the strands of the National Curriculum) allows us to ensure that our children have access to an up to date, challenging curriculum. A curriculum that meets the needs of our students in order for them to make good progress.
Our streamed progression will enable teachers to complete meticulous assessments, track progress and plan from it as part of our commitment to inspire all children to develop their skills in Design and Technology. The impact of our Design and Technology curriculum is in the development of our pupils being able to approach problems creatively and in a range of ways, applying their knowledge from across the curriculum areas independently. By providing a range of contexts and the necessary skills, we endeavour to support pupils in their future educational journey and in the understanding of the ever-developing world around them.
Our effective teaching of Design and Technology will impact on the students in the following ways:
- The Design and Technology curriculum provides children with access to an investigative, cyclical approach, with a mix of research, teacher led/child initiated practical lessons. They are taught knowledge and skills through this process and will evaluate, test, and critique their products as well as those of others. This will help to foster an enquiring mind and develop resilience.
- Children are provided with the opportunities to learn about the 5 strands in Design and Technology: Food and Nutrition, Mechanisms, Textiles, Structures and Electrical Systems as well as Designers and Technologists from these fields that have changed the world and community around them.
- Children will explore and use a range of materials to create a working product.
- Children will understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook.
- A varied, progressive and rich vocabulary enables children to articulate orally their ideas and work independently and with others productively.
- Design and Technology lessons are engaging, fun and designed to encourage all learners to succeed, manage risks effectively and develop skills at their own level.
- Children’s understanding in Design and Technology is consistently being built upon year on year, term on term with high aspirations. The skills and attributes they develop will benefit them beyond school and into adulthood.
What next for our pupils?
A proportion of our children in Year 6 go on to our local secondary school - Henry Beaufort. We work closely with our secondary schools to support the best possible transition not only for the whole children but to ensure their successful curriculum journey continues. This includes curriculum opportunties where we visit the school or we have specialist teachers come to teach our children key knowledge, skills and understanding.
To gain a further understanding of the next step in our children's learning journey please visit Henry Beauforts curriculum pages. Here you will see how the Primary curriculum at Weeke enables the children to continue to make progress in given subjects.
Curriculum Links
The school works in partnership with DATA (Design and Technology Association) to ensure we have the most up-to-date and innovative approaches to delivering Design Technology. If you would like to find out more visit: https://www.data.org.uk/for-education/primary/primary-curriculum/ .
You can also find out more about how we have developed our curriculum by reading our award winning subject leaders article on the development of Design Technology.