Design and Technology
Intent
Guston CEP School’s Design and Technology scheme of work 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. Through our scheme of work, 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. The scheme aligns with the National Curriculum and the EYFS units provide opportunities for pupils’ to work towards the Development Matters statements and the Early Learning Goals.
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.
The National Curriculum organises the Design and Technology attainment targets under four subheadings: Design, Make, Evaluate, and Technical Knowledge. Cooking and nutrition is given a particular focus in the National curriculum and we have made this one of our six key areas that pupils revisit throughout their time in primary school:
Cooking & Nutrition
Mechanisms/mechanical systems
Structures
Textiles
Electrical systems (KS2)
Digital world (KS2)
Guston CEP School’s scheme has a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these strands and key areas across each year group. Through the scheme, pupils respond to design briefs and scenarios that require consideration of the needs of others, developing their skills in six 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. The scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key areas revisited again and again with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revisit and build on their previous learning. It has also been adapted for mixed year groups where necessary, based on the key learning from each area.
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. Differentiated guidance 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.
Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust Design and Technology curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD. This supports teachers in delivering lessons of a high standard and ensure pupil progression.
Design and Technology is taught either in weekly lessons or in a block, depending on the amount of space and resources needed for the unit. This is at teachers discretion. Each year, the whole school participates in a Design and Technology based Christmas Project, where each class creates a product to sell at the D&T Fair. These products are decided by the class teacher, on a yearly basis, but always include the objectives from one of their units from their yearly plan.
Impact
The impact of the scheme is constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. Each unit has a unit quiz and knowledge catcher that can be used at the start to assess pupils’ current level of knowledge or at the end to assess their understanding of the objectives.
Guston CEP School believe that after taking part in Design and Technology lessons throughout their primary school life, pupils should leave equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and be innovative and resourceful members of society.
The expected impact of following the scheme is that 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.