Design and Technology

Design and Technology Intent

Our DT curriculum supports our broader school intention to prepare our children to be ready for life in modern Britain . Creative thinking and resilience, key values we hold, encourages children to make positive changes to their quality of life by becoming inventive problem-solvers.

Through Design and Technology, children will develop tool skills; learning how to do things, develop life skills, including cooking and nutrition, problem solve and be able to reflect, use transferable skills as well as make cross curricular links.  There will always be a need to design new things and Design and Technology will develop children’s ability to do this through designing, making and evaluating.  Children will develop skills and knowledge and be able to apply them.  Design and Technology will allow children to create something, for somebody and for some purpose as they explore and gain hands on experience of the whole process; Plan, Design, Create and Evaluate, developing children’s holistic understanding of the world around them.  The children will leave primary school understanding and having the confidence in making their ideas a reality by applying Design and Technology key concepts through a broad range of projects based on designing and making and cooking and nutrition.

Key Skills needed in Design Technology:

1. Designing:  Children will have a clear idea of who they are designing and making products for.  The user could be themselves, an imaginary character, another person, client, consumer or target audience.  Children will know the purpose of the product they design.  It should perform a clearly identifiable task that can be evaluated.  Children will be given opportunities to make informed design decisions such as selecting materials, components and techniques and deciding what form the product will take and how it will work.  Projects will encourage innovation, having a range of design ideas and products being developed.
2. Making:  Children will make a product that serves a function in some way to be successful.  What does the product do?  Products often combine aesthetic qualities with functional characteristics.  Each child will demonstrate creativity, technical and practical abilities when making different products, so that children in a class will have different looking products.  Children should design and make products that are authentic; products that are believable, real and meaningful to themselves, allowing children to make design decisions and clear users and purposes in mind.
3. Evaluating:  Children will evaluate as a key part of their Design and Technology learning.  They will evaluate their ideas throughout and their final product against original design criteria.  They will address what worked well? Challenges faced?  How were challenges dealt with?  What would they change next time?  What skills were learnt/developed?  What was the best part of the project?  By evaluating, children will learn to test and improve their product and ensure that it is fit for purpose and responds to the wants and needs of the user.