Design Technology

at Sawley Junior School

Intent

What do we want SJS children to learn?

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 in order to design and make a product. Skills are taught progressively to ensure that all children are able to learn and practice in order to develop as they move through the school. Evaluation is an integral part of the design process and allows children to adapt and improve their product, this is a key skill which they need throughout their life. D&T allows children to apply the knowledge and skills learned in other subjects, particularly Maths, Science and Art. Children’s interests are captured through theme learning, ensuring that links are made in a cross curricular way, giving children motivation and meaning for their learning. Children will learn basic cooking skills.

Our design Technology curriculum encourages children to be independent enquirers, team workers, resourceful thinkers, self-managers, effective participators and reflective learners which is part of our empowering learning ethos for all lessons in school.

All children can take part in the Design Technology, any adaptations for cutting and working on projects are assessed for individual needs and accommodations and support used where necessary.

Each area, such as sewing, has a sequential, skill building activity for each year group getting progressively more challenging whilst ensuring some of the previous skills are developed and built upon.

Children have opportunities throughout the year to complete activities and produce items for Enterprise projects and Christmas Fayre. We also use many of the electricity skills in science and measuring skills in Maths. Other skills can often be used in our learning challenge projects and children are encouraged to use them in homework activities and makes.

DT can link to many different cultures and to many different places around the world, by focusing on inventors and innovators our children can engage with projects from many different and diverse sectors. It allows our children to ‘experience different things’ and allows them to creatively investigate and use their knowledge to design. From this we are encouraging the designers and makers of the future.

Implementation

How do we achieve our Intent?

Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to flourish to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be.

All teaching of DT should follow the design, make and evaluate cycle. Each stage should be rooted in technical knowledge. The design process should be rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning. While making, children should be given choice and a range of tools to choose freely from. To evaluate, children should be able to evaluate their own products against a design criterion. Each of these steps should be rooted in technical knowledge and vocabulary. DT should be taught to a high standard, where each of the stages should be given equal weight. The key skills we teach the children are:

· sewing and textiles

· cooking and nutrition

 · electrical and mechanical components

 · Using materials

Staff subject knowledge is supported by using the Plan Bee scheme which has a sequential program of learning, developing skills and evaluation in all projects. Staff who have identified needs are offered additional support, training and ready-made packs for children to access.

Staff continually discuss question and challenge ideas in DT, Children are given the opportunity to be team workers, independent enquirers and reflect on their learning. Understanding is checked throughout and misconceptions addressed by quality resources and interactions with staff members. Feed back is often through discussion and up levelling their ideas and work.

Plan Bee resources give a wider context for the children’s learning and show where their project fits into the world. It also allows them to take a basic pattern and shows them how to develop their ideas and encourages through the use of a variety of designers, makers and artists them to develop and grow their own ideas. Creating an individual product of their own. It allows them to re-visit each area in each year group thus consolidating and building on the previous years projects.

Children who have shown a real aptitude for a specific topic may begin at a different point in the designing and making process or may have additional criteria or additional elements to include in their project. Through assessment these children’s skills can be developed and encourage further.