Design Technology
Intent
At Howick C of E Primary School we aim to provide pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum set within a caring and supportive Christian community. We aim to provide a progressive, exciting and challenging curriculum in which each and every child is able to flourish and grow into confident, curious and resilient learners. Our curriculum is language rich and aims to provide children with a unique experience in which each member of the school is valued and respected.
Design Technology is taught as a discrete subject across KS1 and KS2, and refers to the designing, making and evaluating of products. We believe that a high-quality design and technology curriculum enables our children to develop critical thinking and understanding of global issues, relevant to our rapidly changing world, and how these can be solved or improved through designs of technology.
At Howick, our children will design and make products based on appropriate, ‘real world’ scenarios that are accessible and relevant to them. They will research and represent their ideas,as well as make and evaluate their work. Our Curriculum is designed to: recognise children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences, allow the children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers. This will enable our children to think independently, innovatively and develop creative, procedural and technical understanding.
We aim to:
Implementation
We have a clear and comprehensive scheme of work in line with the National Curriculum. This scheme of work ensures that all learners, regardless of their individual starting point, will have access to the DT curriculum. The purpose of each and every lesson is language rich and has clear intention. Lessons are planned to draw upon the experiences and existing knowledge of all learners, in addition to visitors/visits which provide a range of opportunities for pupils to learn, practice and demonstrate skills but also discuss and engage critically with material to deepen their knowledge and understanding. Whilst we recognise that the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum outlines curriculum expectations, we appreciate that our learning should go beyond this, divulging deeper into skills, knowledge and understanding.
Due to mixed age classes, our learning takes place over a two year rolling cycle (A and B). This ensures progression between year groups and guarantees topics are covered. Teachers plan to suit their children’s interests, current events, their own teaching style, the use of any support staff and the resources available. Learning is designed to meet the needs of all learners including pupils with SEND, disadvantage pupils, vulnerable pupils and more able learners. Through differentiated outcomes and lesson delivery, Howick aims to reduce barriers to inclusion, ensuring that all children are able to fulfil their potential regardless of their background, disability, ethnicity, gender, identity, learning difficulty, nationality, religion or sexual orientation.
There are four distinct phases of our teaching sequence:
Phase 1: Research
This phase allows the children to find out what products/recipes are already available and encourages the children to find out the strengths and weaknesses of these products. During this phase children will test new materials or ingredients.
Phase 2: Design
Using the knowledge they have gained during the research phase, the children design their new product. This will often include detailed annotated drawings and lists of ingredients, tools and materials.
Phase 3: Make
Children are encouraged to follow their original designs very carefully. During this phase children will have the opportunity to learn new skills and develop their technical expertise.
Phase 4: Evaluate
Children are encouraged to be critical thinkers. They evaluate whether their product or recipe was successful and fulfilled the design brief. If it did – fantastic, if not the children are encouraged to think about how they would improve their product in future.
Impact
Our Design and Technology curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discrete vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work. Teachers use their own judgement and formative assessment to assess outcomes of learning and understanding, as well as inform judgments to support differentiation and challenge required of children.
At Howick, we enjoy the use of Seesaw to capture magical moments of learning. This is a wonderful way for children to continue their learning beyond the classroom and provides a wonderful starting point for discussion as children share their evidence with those closest to them. Children review their successes in achieving the lesson objectives at the end of every session and are actively encouraged to identify their own target areas. Summative assessment across each year group is also used to inform the subject leader of progress or skills and knowledge still to be embedded.
Feedback from pupils:
"I love my D.T lessons and how we learn new skills."
"It has taught me how to problem solve and never give up."
"Life skills I can use forever."
National Curriculum
Design and Technology
Curriculum Map
Progression of Skills
Early Years Foundation Stage
Design and technology in the early years can enable children to make sense of the world in which they live. Children do this by making, changing and modifying (or designing) things for themselves. Design and technology enables children to gain knowledge and understanding of their world. Design is not just about drawing, but about thinking. Creating a biscuit or designing a new Lego structure require no drawing, but both involve some experience, some imagination and a willingness to change and modify ideas. Technology, on the other hand, is about doing - making something for a purpose. It involves putting ideas into practice and having an awareness of the possibilities and limitations of different materials. Children need to experience at first hand the consequences of the decisions they have made, rather than quickly being shown by an adult how to get it 'right'. Purposeful making involves creativity, imagination and fun - as well as making mistakes.
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How Design Technology is specifically links with the Early Years Foundation Stage: Skills Progression
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Class 1 have enjoyed designing and creating their own sock puppets this half-term. They used a variety of different media including fabric glue and paint, as well as practised skills such as stitching! It has been lovely to see their creations come to life!
The children experienced making sliding cards for Father Day. Miss Hardiman then popped out similar resources in the continuous provision and the children came up with their own designs!
Key Stage 1
National Curriculum - Pupils should be taught to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products. They should use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination. Pupils will develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space Pupils will be taught about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.
Key Stage 2
National Curriculum – Pupils should develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design. They should create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas. Pupils should be taught to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials (e.g. pencil, charcoal, paint, clay). Pupils should be taught about great artists, architects and designers in history.
Key Learning in Design Technology
Vocabulary Progression
Vocabulary will be revisited throughout each unit and will be built upon accordingly.
Our Wonderful Learning
Class 1
The children created knotted hearts as part of their art work and wanted to find away to showcase their amazing work. The children decided to design and make their own mobiles were put up on display around the classroom. Lots of the hearts kept falling down so the children had to come up with their own ideas on how to make the mobile more stable.
Class 2
Class 3
Class 3 enjoyed showcasing their amazing tipper trucks to Class 1. We raced the trucks and compared the distance they travelled. We also tested out what could be tipped by the truck and how to make the tip more effective such as angle and mechanism.
Class 4
Design Technology - Advent Calendar
Class 4 have been working on a project to design and make a reusable advent calendar that could be used by children of all ages. Every child designed their own pocket and selected a sewing stitch they have practised to create the pocket. They then decorated their pocket with their choice of felt, ribbon, buttons, fabric pens and fabric glue. Now they just need treats to go inside!
Bread
The children have completed a project on bread. They have explored different breads, considered the role of bread in a balanced diet, made a basic bread mix, modified this according to a specification, shared with another class and then evaluated.
Whole School
Our fabulous children had the opportunity to take part in a Lego Coding day with Junior Stem. Together they design, made and evaluated their moving Lego structures. A huge thank you to Nick at Junior Stem for inspiring our wonderful bunch!
https://www.juniorstem.co.uk/primary-school-workshops/
Skills:
- Designing
- Programming
- Creativity and Problem Solving
Kapla was so much fun! It was wonderful to see how the children could build upon their design as well as problem solve.
Extra Curricular Activities: Cooking Club
The children have been enjoying making lots of delicious and healthy foods! Over the last couple of weeks, we have enjoyed making home made pizzas, berry crumble and cookies! Well done to our super chefs for designing and making these fabulous delicious treats.
Information for Parents
How to encourage D.T learning at home:
- Get your child to sort objects by different criteria. You could do this by getting them to help to set the table or organise shopping items to be put away. For older children, encourage your child to think of the different food groups and consider the importance of a balanced diet.
- When talking to your child, look for opportunities to notice and discuss materials around them – utensils in the kitchen, tree barks on a walk, soft furnishings in the bedroom. You could compare materials and discuss suitability.
- While speaking, use the language of designing and making, for example words such as ‘join', ‘build' and ‘shape'. And use evaluative and comparative language – ‘longer', ‘shorter', ‘lighter', ‘heavier' and ‘stronger'.
- Encourage and support the use of a range of tools, such as scissors, hole punch, stapler, glue spreader, rolling pin, cutter and grater. As children grow older they will become more independent. Why not encourage your child to make lunch?
Information for Pupils: Be Brave, Be Bold, Be a Dreamer!
Do you love D.T?
There are lots of projects that you can complete at home. Here is a link to a webpage with lots of ideas: https://www.theschoolrun.com/5-home-design-and-technology-projects-primary-children
Please remember to always get permission from an adult before completing any projects!
If you decide to complete a D.T project at home, please remember to bring in a picture or your finished product. Dojo points will be given to those creative entrepreneurs that decide to continue their learning at home.
Designers of Past and Present
Remember you can achieve anything you put your mind to! Just like you, these artists and designers started with passion for seeing beyond the impossible.