DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Context:

Our School is situated in an area with easy access from the school to local businesses. Throughout the Design Technology Curriculum the school uses opportunities to connect with businesses to support children’s learning. Local supermarkets provide food donations for food technology lessons.

Within the school all children have the exciting opportunity to access a separate kitchen resourced for whole class lessons. Learning experiences are planned with progression so all children revisit cooking in each year group. Children are encouraged to develop a love of cooking as a life skill. The school is well resourced with storage for quality tools and materials to allow all children access to textiles, construction and mechanisms across the curriculum.  From EYFS onwards, children are encouraged to self-select resources to design and make

Intent:

At Ferndown First School we believe Design Technology is an exciting and relevant part of the Curriculum because it supports our children in readiness for a future of possibilities. It prepares them with an understanding of their impact as designers on the wider world. It ensures they are considerate of other’s needs, wants and values.

We intend to provide children with a broad variety of engaging DT learning that solves real life problems engaging their curiosity through exploring the world of design around them. We aim for children to draw on a wealth of learning and implement skills from Maths, Science, Computing and the Art Curriculum to aid their design process. We inspire for all children to be resilient learners, taking risks in their designs and products and evaluating their outcomes.

In an increasingly technological world, children need technical, creative and practical expertise to be able to fully participate as capable citizens. D.T skills and knowledge enable our children to be resourceful, innovative and enterprising individuals growing up in the 21^st Century.

In a nutshell, ‘Design Technology is solving real and relevant problems by designing products using imagination and creativity.’

Implementation:

Design Technology is taught through the big ideas: Mastering Techniques, Designing and Making and Inspiration and Communication.

• Mastering techniques is learning and applying practical and technical skills. The key knowledge categories are: Food, Materials, Textiles, Construction, Mechanics and Electronics.
• Designing and Making is using creativity and experimentation to design new products and solve problems in the real world. The key knowledge categories are Research, Design and Plan, Make and Evaluate.
• Inspiration and Communication is exploring and evaluating existing design and exploring designers through History. The key knowledge categories are: Designers, The Natural World and Expressing Thoughts and Feelings.
• A Design Technology long term plan has been created drawing upon the “The Plan Bee” Scheme of Work. Units were chosen to ensure progression and repetition of skills and knowledge across both key stages.
• T lessons are taught once a term over a series of weeks as half termly projects. This enables time to be spent on each area of the design process and to produce a quality outcome.
• Evidence of learning is recorded in D.T books which include annotated designs, plans of the process and self – evaluation.
• Progression in knowledge and skills documents support staff to make assessments from practical and recorded observations throughout the year.

Impact

Children at Ferndown First School will become designers who:

• Have a secure knowledge of the most appropriate tools and materials to use to make quality products.
• Understand how to use tools safely using correct techniques for different materials and confidently know how to work hygienically with food.
• Have a secure knowledge of nutrition when cooking and use this to inform choices for healthy food preparation.
• Understand how to apply skills from across the curriculum such as mathematical measuring in cooking, application of building circuits in science and creativity through Art techniques for decoration.
• Understand how to take risks to test out how a design will work and to identify improvements.
• Have a sound base of vocabulary used in Design Technology lessons.
• Are curious about the impact that key designers have had through History and ask questions about how todays designs will shape the future!