Design and Technology

Intent

Our Design and Technology curriculum at Birchfields Primary School intends to develop children’s academic and practical skills, by encouraging them to solve problems based on initial exploration of designers and their products, leading to solving problems based on real life contexts. Design and Technology gives all children the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned through their practical exploration and then to use this knowledge to design and make their own product within the context of the current year group project.

It aims to encourage children to take risks, to develop new innovative designs and to be reflective learners by giving them opportunities to evaluate their own work, as well as the design and work of others within school and the wider world. Children are given time to test their own products and make adjustments which enables them to change their designs and improve their end product. By looking at the work of others and giving feedback to each other based on a design criteria, this enables children to become evaluative learners.

Implementation

Our bespoke Design and Technology curriculum is designed by identifying the key skills, knowledge and understanding required by the National Curriculum. Lessons are then planned to ensure that skills are taught sequentially across the key stages and that new skills build on and develop those taught in previous year groups. At Birchfields, Design and Technology is planned and delivered within the wider curriculum projects, so that skills can be learnt and developed to a deeper level over a sustained period of study.

Each project is driven by an overall key question which requires the children to reflect on their exploration of products and designs, so that they can apply their learning to their own designs and thus generate their own answers. The children are given opportunities to evaluate their own designs and products based on clear design criteria (provided in KS1 but written by the children in Key Stage 2). All
children are given the opportunity to engage in a wide range of Design and Technology activities which actively encourage them to embrace the subject and develop a lifelong set of skills.

Design and Technology is a practical subject in which children play with and explore a wide range of products and designs. They use knowledge from this exploration to create their own designs and they then use a wide range of materials and tools to build their own products. Each of the units of study are designed to be relevant, motivating and engaging for the children and inclusive of all groups of children and individuals across the school. Opportunities for evaluation throughout the projects enables children to look deeper into their learning and reflect on what they have designed and made and whether it has successfully met the design criteria.

Our bespoke assessment trackers focus on both the acquisition and depth of understanding of key Design and Technology skills. Assessment is carried out through a range of formative assessments which includes book scrutinies and pupil practical tasks. Assessment then informs planning, identifying any gaps in knowledge or skills, ensuring that our children have every opportunity to develop as  inquisitive designers and technologists.

Impact

Our Design and Technology curriculum enables and encourages our children to become critical thinkers. They look at existing designs to analyse and assess their effectiveness and then consider ways of redesigning and reconstructing them to improve their overall success. Through Design and Technology our children learn to take risks, become resourceful, innovative and enterprising individuals.

Children learn to be passionate and excited by the designing and making of products including working with, preparing and tasting food. Learning is assessed through the analysis of the pupil’s ability to evaluate, design, make and improve their own work.