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Design Technology

Intent

At St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School our intention is that we deliver a high quality DT curriculum which pupils will be inspired by.  We believe that through DT our pupils have the opportunity to develop the skills, concepts and knowledge necessary for them to design, make and evaluate their ideas, and use technology successfully.

We want children to enjoy and love learning about DT by gaining these skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also through workshops and whole school themed weeks.

Our DT Curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression over the Key Stages. In Key Stage 1 and 2 we follow the “Projects on the Page” scheme which provides children with opportunities to develop their skills using a range of media and materials. Children learn about cooking and nutrition; develop their technological knowledge; and are given the opportunity to carefully design, make and evaluate different ideas.

Implementation

At St Andrew’s Primary School, DT is not taught just in a designated DT lesson, but wherever appropriate it is linked to the wider curriculum as it gives children the opportunities to bring topics to life.

Our long term planning builds-in coverage of and progression in both the content and concepts outlined below:

  • Design, make and evaluate
  • Technological knowledge
  • Cooking and Nutrition

In DT, children are expected to research and plan their work and to be reflective during the making of their work; thinking about how they can adapt plans, make changes and keep improving. This should be meaningful and continuous throughout the process, with evidence of age-related verbal and written refection. Children are encouraged to take risks and experiment and then evaluate and reflect on why some ideas and techniques are successful or not for a particular project.

We use portfolios to record evidence of our designs, products and evaluations; to help the children develop their ideas and to show progression in their DT skills. We encourage children to work on their own and collaborate with others on projects.

Impact

We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning in DT, we will encourage pupils to demonstrate a growth mind-set and we will nurture their talents therefore enabling them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.

If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

  • A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes;
  • A celebration of learning as part of ‘DT week’ which demonstrates progression across the school;
  • Open evenings as a chance for classes to display pupils work and evidence the broad curriculum opportunities offered across the school
  • Pupil discussions about their learning; which includes discussion of their thoughts, ideas, processing and evaluations of work.
  • Teachers working together to discuss planning, pupils work and DT portfolios.