Design and Technology
Intent
Our WFPS Design & Technology curriculum enables our children to develop the design expertise they need in the world they live in so that they can flourish and reach their potential. It encourages children to become independent, creative problem solvers and thinkers as individuals and as part of a team. Our children are given every opportunity to build their substantive knowledge (factual content) and disciplinary knowledge (the skills) in all elements of the Design & Technology curriculum as they master the skills of how to be successful citizens in our rapidly changing word; they are encouraged to develop their design, practical and evaluation skills to help in the world of further education, work and in their future lives. They may be inspired to pursue further study and career paths in Design & Technology. Design & Technology has deep links with Maths, Science and Computing, forming a key component of the STEM curriculum. Children will recognise how some disciplinary knowledge is transferable and can help them to solve problems across these subject areas. The curriculum has been carefully constructed to ensure children obtain a solid understanding of key Design Technology skills, concepts and knowledge. We aim to offer rich and vibrant opportunities within the curriculum which draw upon meaningful real-life experiences.
Implementation
Design & Technology is designed and taught with an understanding that the working memory is limited and that we can aid learning and the acquisition of the long term memory with regular repeated learning experiences over time.
The following high-dividend concepts have been identified as an integral part of the Design & Technology curriculum: Structures, Food, Mechanisms and Mechanical Systems, Textiles, Programming and Electrical systems. The disciplinary skills, which are progressive, are Designing, Making and Evaluating; these skills are broken down into small steps and frequently revisited and built upon in units across the year group and key stage. Teachers will make explicit reference to where children have met these concepts previously in the curriculum.
Through the Design & Technology curriculum, children will be taught the National Curriculum objectives thoroughly, ensuring that each year group builds on previous learning so there is clear progression. Through this diversity of creative and practical activities, pupils should be taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in an iterative process of designing and making. They will also work in a range of relevant contexts. During Design & Technology units, pupils will have the opportunity to design, make and evaluate a product, as well as gaining technical and health and safety knowledge.
The WFPS Design & Technology curriculum is based on KAPOW. Children engage in alternate terms of Design & Technology which is taught weekly. The WFPS long term plan visits each Design & Technology element once in KS1, Lower KS2 and Upper KS2 building on prior learning. KAPOW units have been chosen to follow a chronological and progressive pathway ensuring all important skills and understanding are developed continually.
During EYFS, children will begin to develop their substantive, disciplinary and conceptual knowledge through playing, building blocks, junk modelling, weaving, cutting and sticking, exploring materials, healthy eating and mechanisms. They can underpin this understanding with the KAPOW EYFS units which introduce the high-dividend concepts of Design & Technology.
During KS1, with reference to the National Curriculum, children will develop their knowledge, understanding and skills, through a variety of creative and practical activities. These skills will help them to learn how to design, make and evaluate products for a particular purpose, using a range of tools and equipment, materials and ingredients. The following units of work have been selected to build upon the experiences in EYFS: Baby Bear’s Chair (Structures), Smoothies (Food), Puppets (Textiles), Making a Moving Monster (Mechanisms), Pouches (Textiles), Eating Seasonally (Food)
During Lower Key Stage 2 the following units of work have been selected to build on the KS1 units: Cushions (Textiles), Pneumatic Toys (Mechanical Systems), Pavilions (Structures), Wearable Technology (Digital World), Torches (Electrical Systems), Adapting a Recipe (Food).
During Upper Key Stage 2, the following units of work have been selected to build upon lower KS2: Bridges (Structures), Fastenings (Textiles), Gears and Pulleys (Mechanical Systems), Developing a Recipe (Food), Steady Hand Game (Electrical Systems), Digital World (Navigating the World).
By the end of KS2, with reference to the National Curriculum, through a variety of creative and practical activities, children will develop their knowledge, understanding and skills. These skills will help them to learn how to research and develop design criteria, to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, to generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, diagrams, sketches, protypes and CAD. They will be able to select from a wide range of tools, materials and equipment and investigate, analyse and evaluate products against their own design criteria, understanding how to improve their work and understanding how individuals in Design & Technology have helped shape the world.
The Design & Technology curriculum and pedagogy will enable children to begin secondary school with a well-developed understanding of how to work collaboratively towards a common goal such as planning and developing projects. They will be able to share ideas, make comparisons, negotiate and offer each other feedback in order to ensure a high-quality outcome. They will become enthusiastic, motivated independent learners, with a real love of learning.
Key Design & Technology vocabulary is specified and explicitly taught as part of the Design & Technology Curriculum. The development of vocabulary progresses throughout the Design & Technology curriculum.
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) |
What our children say:
|
Year group |
What have you been learning in your lessons?
Have you learnt something new that you didn’t know before? |
What helps you to learn? |
Why is this subject important? |
|
EYFS and KS1 |
E- We learnt about moving mechanisms, how to make a healthy salad and how to construct a car garage J- We have to learn how to use a knife and grater properly. We also had to think about stable structures in our car garages so when Receptions play with it, it won’t break |
A- We look at different types of car garages first to see what they were like E- We learnt about tabs to help make it more stable |
E- So you know how to make things in the future like building a shed in your garden B- In the future I’m going to build a tree house so the car garage building has helped give me inspiration and helped me be better |
|
KS2 |
E- In D&T this year we have made bags in line with our make do and mend project, we constructed fairground rides and now we are making a ploughman’s lunch |
E – Knowledge organisers help us in D&T F- The design criteria helps us to know what we need to do C- We evaluate in D&T to reflect on our projects |
B-To learn to problem solve to make new things F- Rather than always going out and buying new things we can make it ourselves and be more eco friendly |