Intent
At Edleston Primary School, we aim to provide all children with a broad and balanced curriculum which prepares them for life beyond primary education. We encourage children to use their creativity and imagination to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. It can be demonstrated in many of the products children use each day and is a part of children’s immediate experiences. Design and Technology encourages children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team.

At Edleston, the curriculum for Design and Technology aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world

• build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users

• critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and research the work of others

• understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook.

Implementation
Through a variety of creative and practical activities, we teach the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in an iterative process of designing and making. The children work in a range of relevant contexts, for example: home, school, leisure, culture, enterprise, industry and the wider environment. Answering Flashback 4-style review questions ensure previous learning is revisited and remembered.

When designing and making, the children are taught to:

Design

• use research and develop criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups
• generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer-aided design.

Make

• select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks (for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing) accurately
• select from and use a wider range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their functional properties and aesthetic qualities.
• apply their understanding of how to strengthen, stiffen and reinforce more complex structures
• understand and use mechanical systems in their products
• understand and use electrical systems in their products
• apply their understanding of computing to program, monitor and control their products.

Evaluate

• investigate and analyse a range of existing products
• evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work
• understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world.

In EYFS, Design & Technology is taught through parts of the following strands:

-Physical Development

-Expressive Arts

-Understanding the World.

 

Impact
At Edleston, we ensure the children:

• Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise which is needed to perform everyday tasks confidently, and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
• Build and apply a collection of skills, understanding and knowledge, in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users and critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others
• Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook.
• Children will design and make a range of products.

A good quality finish will be expected in all design and activities made, which will be appropriate to the age and ability of the child.

Children will learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they will develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world. High-quality design and technology education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of a global society.