Design & Technology

Intent:

At Wincanton design and technology should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to: fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for design and technology, provide a broad and balanced curriculum, ensure the progressive development of knowledge and skills, to learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens through evaluation of past and present design and technology, develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world, to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world using the language of design and technology.

The aims of teaching design and technology in our school are:

• Develop creative, technical and imaginative thinking in children and to develop confidence to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
• Enable children to talk about how things work and to develop their technical knowledge,
• Apply a growing body of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make prototypes and products for a wide range of users,
• Encourage children to select appropriate tools and techniques when making a product, whilst following safe procedures,
• Develop an understanding of technological processes and products, their manufacture and their contribution to our society,
• Foster enjoyment, satisfaction and purpose in designing and making things,
• Critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products, and the work of others,
• Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and to learn how to cook,
• Understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world.

Implementation:

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in design and technology, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Design and technology is taught focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. At Wincanton, we ensure that design and technology is given the same importance as the core subjects, as we feel this is important in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences.

The design and technology curriculum at Wincanton is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons for their class using our progression of knowledge and skills documents. Teachers are aware of our children’s cultural capital and we ensure the opportunities in Design & Technology allow children to develop key life skills within cooking & nutrition. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.

When teaching design and technology, a variety of teaching approaches are used based on the teacher’s judgement. The children’s work is displayed in corridors after learning experiences or families may be invited in to share the learning outcome.

We provide a variety of opportunities for design and technology learning to take place inside and outside the classroom.

Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional design and technology learning inside or outside the classroom. We have had visits from stars of ‘The Great British Bake Off’, visits from local museums, food establishments and many more visitors into school to share learning and have hands on experiences

Impact:

Within design and technology, we strive to prepare children to take part in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. We aim to encourage children to become creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team. Through the study of design and technology, children combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, as well as of functions and industrial practices. This allows them to reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and its impact. Our design and technology curriculum is well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
• Images and outcomes of the children’s practical learning.
• Children’s own evaluations of products.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Mind maps