Design and Technology at Sawley Junior School

At Sawley Junior School, our Design and Technology Curriculum develops creativity, problem-solving, and technical understanding. Built around key substantive concepts and disciplinary knowledge, our curriculum equips children with the skills to think, design, and create like designers and engineers.

The key substantive concepts are:

• Cooking and nutrition
• Textiles
• Mechanisms
• Structures

Sawley Junior school, children receive a design and technology curriculum which allows them to exercise their creativity through designing and making. The children are taught to combine their designing and making skills with knowledge and understanding.

Skills are taught progressively to ensure that all children are able to revisit, learn, practice and build upon.

Evaluation is an integral part of the design process and allows children to adapt and improve their product, this is a skill we teach throughout the unit.

Children will learn cooking skills following the National Curriculum and extra cooking sessions which are themed to link with their History or Geography topic.

Our Intent

We aim to:

• Develop creativity and innovation by encouraging pupils to design and make purposeful products.
• Build practical skills and technical knowledge 
• Encourage problem-solving and resilience by learning from mistakes, evaluating and refining their products.
• Promote understanding of the design process 
• Inspire children to understand the wider world and create an awareness of how design, technology and engineering shape the future.

 

How we teach Design and Technology

We use the Kapow Scheme of Work, which:

• Follows the National Curriculum
• Provides clear, progressive units linked to the key substantive concepts
• Skills are revisited and built upon in following years
• Follows the design cycle: Design, Make, Evaluate
• Inspires children to become curious, creative and innovative thinkers, to think like designers and engineers.

We add extra cooking sessions linking to year groups' current history or geography unit.

 

Our Approach

• D&T units follow the design, make and evaluate cycle.
• Each unit is rooted in technical knowledge.
• The design process is rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning.
• While making, children are given choice of tools and materials to choose from.
• Children evaluate their own products against a design criterion and are expected to be evaluating and making changes through the process.

Staff subject knowledge is supported by using the Kapow scheme which has a sequential program of learning, developing skills and evaluation in all projects. Also, staff are supported by a D&T Subject Leader, Senior Leadership Team and One Academy Trust cluster meetings.

 

Building Knowledge Year by Year

Our D&T units are progressive and children revisit skills previously taught and build upon these.

Year 3:

• Wearable Technology (Digital World)
• Constructing a Castle (Structures)
• Eating Seasonally (Cooking and Nutrition)

Year 4:

• Exploring Electrical Products - Torches (Electrical Systems)
• Mechanical Cars (Mechanical Systems)
• Adapting Recipes (Cooking and Nutrition)

Year 5:

• Developing Recipes (Cooking and Nutrition)
• Wobble Bots (Electrical Systems)
• Gears and Pulleys (Mechanical Systems)
• Bridges (Structures)

Year 6: 

• Waistcoats (Textiles)
• Navigating the World (Digital World)
• Come Dine with Me (Cooking and Nutrition)