Design Technology
Intent
At Sidlesham we believe Design and 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 and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts. We also aim to make links to designs and designers throughout history, providing opportunities for children to critically reflect upon and evaluate their designs. We aim to, wherever possible, link work to other disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. This gives the learning purpose and relevance to the children.
Curriculum Aims
Implementation
At Sidlesham Primary Schools our design and technology curriculum is built around essential knowledge, understanding and key skills. These are broken into year group expectations and show clear continuity and progress. All teaching of design and technology follows the design, make and evaluate cycle. The design process should be relevant in context, to give meaning to learning. While making, children should be given an element of choice to support creativity. When evaluating, children should be able to evaluate their own products against a design criteria and gain feedback from others to reflect upon. Each of these steps should be rooted in technical knowledge and vocabulary.
We have a two year rolling programme that highlights the areas of study to be revisited.
Key Stage 1
- Cooking and nutrition
- Textiles
- Mechanisms
- Use of materials
- Construction
Key Stage 2
- Cooking and nutrition
- Textiles
- Electrical and mechanical components
- Stiff and flexible sheet materials
- Mouldable materials
During Bushraft, the children develop a range of useful life skills that are put to use in real life contexts to practice and develop. These skills include knot tying, fire lighting, cooking, den building and construction, weaving and use of tools such as saws, knives, drills, hammers, axes, sceuteurs, glue guns and fire-steels.
Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional design and technology learning outside the classroom. At Sidlesham Primary School, the children have opportunities to experience design and technology on educational visits. The children have visited local museums, food establishments and had visitors into school to share learning and have hands on experiences.
Alongside our curriculum provision for design and technology, we also provide all pupils with the opportunity to participate in DT based after school clubs (Baking, Lego, Hamma Beads, Bushcraft).
Impact
The impact of our design and technology curriculum can be seen not only in our children’s books but also through classroom displays and the school environment.
Everything we do is with the child in mind, and strong relationships are built between pupils and staff which create an atmosphere for learning which is conducive to success.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
- Images of the children’s practical learning.
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
Children in Foundation Stage are assessed within Expressive Arts and Design and their progress is tracked termly.
Design Technology Overview
Design Technology Progression
Vocabulary Progression
Design Technology Knowledge Organisers