Accessibility Tools

Weston Favell Primary School

ceop logo

Design and Technology

Design &Technology 

Intent: 

Through our DT curriculum, children learn about the designed and made world and how things work.  They use their creativity and imagination to design and make functional products, for particular purposes and users within a wide variety of contexts. 

We aim for all children: 

  • To develop a curiosity and excitement about how things are made and how they work, as well as thinking creatively to problem solve and make products even better.  We want our children to be prepared for tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. 
  • To know how to take risks, be resilient and reflective in order to create and develop designs and to evaluate the work of themselves and others. 
  • To work collaboratively with others. 
  • To be able to consider the needs, wants and values of the person they are creating for within the designing and making process, ensuring their product has a function. 
  • Consider the impact products have on the world and ensure they are working in a sustainable way. 
  • To be equipped with the technical knowledge, vocabulary and skills in relation to structural design, mechanical and electrical systems, textiles, food production and nutrition.  This will enable them to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users. 
  • To acquire and apply knowledge and understanding of materials and components, mechanisms and control systems, structures, existing products, quality and health and safety. 
  • To make connections across the curriculum and apply their knowledge from other areas, for example, using their knowledge about the properties of materials in science, their accurate measuring in maths, their use of computer control and programming in computing and their creativity and experimentation in art. 
  • To understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook, instilling a love of the crucial life skill of cooking.  We want children to be able to feed themselves and others affordably and healthily. 

Implementation: 

Children engage with the following three activities which are combined to create a project.   

  • Activities which involve investigating and evaluating existing products 
  • Focused tasks in which children develop particular aspects of knowledge and skills 
  • Designing and making activities in which children design and make 'something' for 'somebody' for 'some purpose' 

Where possible, our DT curriculum makes links with other areas of learning and real life to create a meaningful context for the children. 

In Early Years, children will learn, through Expressive Arts and Design and Physical Development (fine motor skills), to: 

  • Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paintbrushes, cutlery and cooking utensils. 
  • Safely explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, texture, form and function. 
  • Share their creations, explaining the process they have used. 
  • Develop knowledge of how to keep themselves healthy. 

Building on from Early Years –  

We have chosen to implement our DT curriculum using the planning, guidance and resources supplied through The D&T Association.  We have chosen this approach carefully because we feel it aligns with our intent and curriculum approach and also because The D&T Association played a significant role in the writing of the National Curriculum, having been asked by the Department of Education what a modern and relevant for the 21st century programme of study should contain.  Our D&T Curriculum meets the scope and ambition of the National Curriculum. 

Our curriculum is progressive, providing opportunities for learners to revisit, build on and strengthen knowledge and skills they have previously learned.  Learning is divided into units of textiles, structures, mechanical and electrical systems and food technology.  Through each unit, learners also develop and apply the skills of investigating, designing, making and evaluating their products. 
 
Design and Technology is taught in all year groups, in blocks of approximately six lessons, three times a year – usually alternating with the teaching of Art and Design. 

   

Impact: 

Pupil voice interviews (May 2023) 

Question 

Response 

Which parts of your learning do you enjoy? Why? 

I enjoyed pulleys and gears because I managed to pull up a bucket and I got to work with my friends to create it (Y6) 

I liked making the bag because I could be creative and I didn’t have to follow set rules, I could make my own mind up (Y6) 

I liked baking the pizzas and making the sandwiches because you got to work with other people (Y3) 

When we designed and made cake boxes, I had to think about how big the cake was and how heavy it was and if the box would hold it (Y3) 
   

In general, do you find your work too easy, too hard or just right? 

I find it just right because we have questions that the teachers give us to help us think as well as annotations in our D&T books to help and we work with our friends (Y6) 

We also had time to design, which helped us with making it (Y6) 

I found it tricky sometimes because it was doing things I’ve never done before (Y3) 

The cake boxes were hard sometimes because we had to measure a lot to make sure the boxes were the right size (Y3) 
   

What do you do if you are struggling? What else could you do? 

Teamwork helps us (Y6) 

We worked in a group, so there were more hands to help (Y6) 

We share ideas from our friends, and we can always ask our teachers (Y3) 

We could take ideas from things we’ve made in other years (Y3) 
   

What helps you to be engaged in your learning? 

Having the freedom to make what you want (Y6) 

I found it really interesting how pulleys and gears worked and how it was used in real life (Y6) 

We could plan it ourselves without too much teacher input, so we were more independent (Y6) 
   

How do you know how well you are doing and what you need to do to improve? 

You can test your products by putting something in your bag to see if it holds or test your pulley to see if it’s strong enough and this tells us if we need to improve it (Y6) 

The teachers move around the classroom and give us tips (Y6) 

We have design time and then, when we make the real product, we have had time to practise (Y3) 
   

Do you get the chance to improve your work after it has been completed? 

We could retry things if we didn’t think they would hold (Y3) 

We had a chance to redo the handle of the cake box, for example (Y3) 

Most of the time we have a longer session to create our product, so we have more time. Maybe we could have even longer, for example a whole day, to keep testing and retrying our product (Y6)