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Design & Technology Intent
Design and Technology
Intent
At St John’s Catholic Primary School, we value Design and Technology as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Through our Design and Technology curriculum we aim to provide children with the knowledge and skills needed for an ever-evolving world.
Our intent is to equip our children with the skills to be able to use their creativity and imagination to solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. We aim to provide our pupils with opportunities that inspire them to think and work independently, collaboratively and innovatively whilst developing their technical understanding and skills.
Through our Design and Technology curriculum, children are given opportunities to carry out research, evaluate the effectiveness of products, develop and present their ideas, make new products and to evaluate and improve their own work.
Design and Technology is an inspiring and practical subject which fosters the children’s creativity and imagination. It is a subject which ensures children acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as spoken language, mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art.
Our curriculum is designed to enable children to become resilient, resourceful, innovative and enterprising citizens with a love of Design and Technology and its potential to equip them for future life skills and potential career paths.
Implementation
Design and Technology is taught as a subject once a term as a block so that the children’s learning is focused throughout each unit of work. Each unit of work is taken from the online resource Kapow which has been chosen for its engaging, knowledge-rich, carefully sequenced curriculum. In addition, the guidance videos and regular webinars support staff to develop their skills and subject knowledge in a curriculum area that is often one where staff lack confidence.
Through the implementation of learning in Design and Technology in accordance with the National Curriculum’s expectations, we aim to ensure that all pupils develop the following skills:
Design
Make
Evaluate
Technical Knowledge
Across the key strands of:
Structures, mechanisms, textiles and cooking and nutrition (KS1)
Structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and cooking and nutrition (KS2)
Our pupils are encouraged to use their creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering the user, purpose of products and the user’s wants and values to develop a design criterion. Through a variety of creative and practical activities, we teach the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to design, make and evaluate.
Key knowledge, skills and vocabulary for Design and Technology have been mapped across the school to ensure progression year on year. For children with SEND needs, teachers have access to the Adapted Learning document to support their Design and Technology lessons.
Click here to see the Adapted Learning document for DT
Impact
Children at St. John’s enjoy Design and Technology, relishing opportunities to be creative and construct. They are excited by the subject and are keen to learn new skills and work hard to perfect those shown to them. Our Design and Technology curriculum contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection.
We measure the impact of our Design and Technology curriculum through the following methods:
formative assessments against objectives and use this information to inform future lessons; ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately.
Reflection on the design, make, evaluate process rather than on the end product.
End of unit assessments
Pupil self-reflection, discussions and interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice)
Reflective staff feedback (teacher voice).
Governor monitoring.
Children in Foundation Stage are assessed within Expressive Arts and Design, Physical Development, Health and Self Care and Technology.
Age related expectation levels are reported to parents at the end of each year in their written report.
By the end of Key Stage 2, children’s work demonstrates that their control and techniques of making have improved significantly through their time at St. John’s and the progression made in the skills pertaining to this subject area is constantly evolving.
The impact of using the full range of resources will be seen across the school with an increase in the profile of Design and Technology.