Design Technology
Aim: That pupils can evaluate, design and build to meet a challenge
Vocabulary: Key to success in Design Technology is the ability to communicate design criteria and evaluate products. Children need an extensive vocabulary of terms for this communication to be accurate and precise.
Identity: Learning about how design technology shapes our world around us develops motivation and curiosity. Locality: Learning about the Design Technology that exists in our locality makes knowledge and conceptual understanding real.
Personality: We are led by those who have come before us and those who are striving now to further the collective fount of human knowledge. We can be inspired by them to achieve greatness.
Our curriculum is structured and supported through the use of a published scheme – Kapow Primary’s Design and technology scheme. We have chosen this scheme of work to inspire pupils to be innovative and creative thinkers who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation and evaluation. We want pupils to develop the confidence to take risks, through drafting design concepts, modelling and testing and to be reflective learners who evaluate their work and the work of others. Through our curriculum, we aim to build awareness of the impact of design and technology on our lives and encourage pupils to become resourceful, enterprising citizens who will have the skills to contribute to future design advancements.
The Curriculum overview shows which units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the five strands. The Progression of skills shows the skills that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.
Through Kapow Primary’s Design and technology scheme, pupils respond to design briefs and scenarios that require consideration of the needs of others, developing their skills in six key areas.
- Mechanisms
- Structures
- Textiles
- Cooking and nutrition (food)
- Electrical systems (KS2)
- Digital World (KS2)
Each of the key areas follows the design process (design, make, evaluate) and has a particular theme and focus from the technical knowledge or cooking and nutrition section of the curriculum. The Kapow Primary scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key areas revisited again and again with increasing complexity., allowing pupils to revisit and build in their previous learning.
Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including practical hands-on, computer-based and inventive tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.
Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust Design and technology curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD.
The pupils have Design technology taught in their class year groups, as part of a 2 year rolling programme in the first two classes and 3 year in the top class.