Design Technology
Intent:
At Bratton Fleming, we are DESIGNERS. We want our children to love Design and Technology. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be architects, graphic designers, chefs or carpenters.
Design and Technology is dynamic and multidimensional. It is our intention that our D&T curriculum will provide opportunities to solve real and relevant problems, allowing our pupils to develop essential everyday skills and unlock their potential to be the designers and innovators of tomorrow.
The D&T curriculum will encourage children to learn, think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as an individual and as part of a team.
D&T will allow pupils to put their learning from other areas of the curriculum into practice and will work to enhance and deepen their understanding of those areas, including Maths, Computing, Science, and Art
Pupils will learn about cooking, food and nutrition, ensuring that they acquire the fundamental life skills in order to be able to feed themselves healthily and independently, whilst learning about where food comes from, therefore making connections with their geographical and scientific knowledge.
Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science – that learning is most effective with spaced repetition and that retrieval of previously learned content is frequently and regular to increase both storage and retrieval strength.
We want to equip our children with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the science National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
Implementation:
Teachers use the National Curriculum, Ventrus Curriculum Approach and Chris Quidley Curriculum Companions as a basis for planning. Within this, some of our teaching and learning for design and technology is linked to other subjects where appropriate but it is often taught discretely.
- We use a skills-based approach to teaching Design & Technology learning. We teach D&T skills discretely, making relevant cross-curricular links, and ensure all children access all areas of the Design Technology Curriculum.
- Teaching of D&T will also follow the cycle of research, develop own ideas, make a final idea and evaluate.
- Children are encouraged to use the exploration of existing products to gain first-hand experience of existing approaches.
- We aim to promote creative problem solvers, both as individuals and part of a team and pupils develop their understanding of the ways in which people in the past and present have used design to meet their needs.
- Children design and make quality products using a range of tools, materials, and components, make connections with their learning across the curriculum including in maths, computing, science, and art and reflect on and evaluate techniques using subject-specific vocabulary.
- Teachers follow a clear progression of skills which ensure all pupils are challenged in -line with their year group expectations and given the opportunity to build on their prior knowledge.
- In order to support children in their ability to ‘know more and remember more’ there are regular opportunities to review the learning taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons.
EYFS
Through Expressive Arts children are encouraged to construct and create purposefully selecting tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials they are using. children learn through first-hand experiences which involve putting their ideas into practice to develop an awareness and understanding of the possibilities and limitations of different materials.
Practitioners encourage children to explore, observe, solve problems, think critically, make decisions and talk about why they have made their decisions as they design and create. Children’s natural creativity is fostered and opportunities for investigation, designing and making are offered daily within our provision, which enables children to learn a great deal about their world.
Impact:
The impact of our Design and Technology curriculum is in the development of our pupils being able to approach problems creatively and in a range of ways, applying their knowledge from across the curriculum areas independently.
By providing a range of contexts and the necessary skills, we endeavour to support pupils in their future educational journey and in the understanding of the ever-developing world around them.
The skills and attributes they develop will benefit them beyond school and into adulthood: the ability to use time efficiently, work with others productively, show initiative, independence, resilience and manage risks effectively will ensure well-rounded citizens who will make a difference in the wider world.
We ensure that children who are achieving well, as well as those who need additional support, are identified, and additional provision and strategies are planned in and discussed with class teachers.
Ongoing assessments take place throughout the year. Teachers use this information to inform future lessons; ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately.
We work to improve staff knowledge and confidence, leading to a stronger profile in Design and Technology and raised pupil achievement.
We expect the children to know more, remember more and understand more about Design and Technology.