Design and Technology Subject Lead: Miss Knight

At Cotford St Luke School we are committed to providing all children with learning opportunities to engage in design and technology. Our planning and practice is based on the 2014 National Curriculum for Design and Technology.

We believe design and technology is about designing and making products for a specific user and purpose. It involves children in learning about the world we live in and developing a wide range of knowledge and skills through designing and making. It helps children to think through problems creatively, about how to organise themselves and how to use knowledge and skills to bring about change and to shape the environment. Through design and technology children become discriminating and informed users of products and become innovators.

At Cotford St Luke, we believe that Design and Technology offers opportunities for children to:

• develop their capability to create quality products through combining their designing and making skills with knowledge and understanding;
• develop a sense of enjoyment and pride in their ability to make;
• nurture creativity and innovation through designing and making;
• Develop an interest and understanding of the ways in which people from the past and present have used design to meet their needs.

Implementation

Time allocation

Design and technology will be taught every half term.  Children will be exposed to Design and Technology projects at least 3 times a year.  Each design and technology project will be taught for one afternoon per week in a six to eight week block to give greater coherence to children’s learning.

Planning

The D&T Association’s Projects on a Page scheme of work provides the framework for learning and teaching in design and technology. (See our whole school curriculum plan)

• One project is planned and undertaken each term.
• Teachers will use the learning challenges in the scheme imaginatively, whilst ensuring the learning objectives remain the same in order to ensure progression.
• Children in their designing and making will apply knowledge and skills of: textiles, food, mechanisms, mechanical systems and structures. Electrical systems are taught in KS2.
• All design, make and evaluate assignments provide learning opportunities for developing creativity through designing skills such as generating, exploring, modifying ideas through drawing, and modelling with materials.

Links with other subjects and key competencies.

• We believe design and technology provides a natural opportunity for children to practice and improve basic skills such as spoken language, English and mathematics.
• In our design, make and evaluate projects we aim to provide learning opportunities for developing key competencies such as problem solving, teamwork, negotiation, consumer awareness and organisation.
• Through evaluating the process and their final products, children will be encouraged to improve their own learning and performance.
• Children develop and apply knowledge and skills from art and design, science, computing and English in design and technology. Teachers will make links wherever possible to help raise standards and enhance children’s learning.
• Design and technology is used to raise children’s appreciation of fundamental British values.

Extending the curriculum

• Children at Cotford St Luke should develop an understanding of the design and made world through first-hand experience.
• Wherever possible children will be given opportunities to visit local museums, shops and restaurants and meet with designers, engineers, chefs, architects and students from college or secondary schools.

Inclusion

A wide range of cultural images and contexts will be used in design and technology, and we will use these opportunities to challenge stereotypes.  For all children to produce their best, we aim to plan and provide differentiated resources, tasks and challenges to meet individual needs.  At Cotford St Luke, we aim to provide a learning environment where children feel secure and creative.  Risk-taking and problem-solving is encouraged and children’s design ideas and suggestions ideas are valued.

Assessment, recording and reporting

• The design and technology subject lead will ask the team to display work of DT in the main building- this will be shown in the school gallery from Autumn 2024.  The subject lead will collect selected examples of children’s work from the learning challenges in our scheme of work- this will be 3 times a year. The examples will be used for identifying progression and expectations.
• Children will use their sketchbooks to keep sketches of their designs, plan drawings, and evaluations. These can be used for assessment purposes and for monitoring progression.
• Teachers will indicate the children’s outcomes on the whole school non core subject tracker, at the end of each Projects on a Page unit they cover.  Data will indicate whether children were on track with learning goals, mostly on track or below track.  This will in turn help to inform future planning.
• Children are encouraged to make self- assessments of their own work through evaluating activities and identifying what they need to do to improve.

EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE:

During the EYFS, children explore and use a variety of media and materials through a combination of child initiated and adult directed activities. They have the opportunities to learn to:

• Use different media and materials to express their own ideas.
• Use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about form, function and purpose.
• Make plans and construct with a purpose in mind using a variety of resources.
• Develop skills to use simple tools and techniques appropriately, effectively and safely.
• Select appropriate resources for a product and adapt their work where necessary.
• Cook and prepare food adhering to good health and hygiene routines.

IMPACT

Our Design Technology Curriculum has been structured to demonstrate the progression of knowledge and skills and ensures that children can build on their understanding, as each new concept and skill is taught with opportunities for children to revisit skills and knowledge as they progress through school. 

We assess the children’s application of design technology skills through observation of their work on tasks, contribution to class discussion and peer discussions.  We also record children's progress on our whole school non-core subject tracker at the end of each unit covered.  The subject lead will also conduct pupil voice sessions 3 times a year, enabling the children to talk about and discuss their work, thoughts, ideas, processing and evaluations of their work whilst also aiding future planning and success of the subject.

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” –Steve Jobs