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Graveney Primary School
‘Learning and Achieving Together’
Design and Technology
Intent
At Graveney Primary School design and technology should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to: fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for design and technology, provide a broad and balanced curriculum, ensure the progressive development of knowledge and skills, to learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens through evaluation of past and present design and technology, develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world, to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world using the language of design and technology.
The aims of teaching design and technology in our school are:
- Develop creative, technical and imaginative thinking in children and to develop confidence to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
- Enable children to talk about how things work and to develop their technical knowledge,
- Apply a growing body of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make prototypes and products for a wide range of users,
- Encourage children to select appropriate tools and techniques when making a product, whilst following safe procedures,
- Develop an understanding of technological processes and products, their manufacture and their contribution to our society,
- Foster enjoyment, satisfaction and purpose in designing and making things,
- Critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products, and the work of others,
- Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and to learn how to cook,
- Understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world.
Implementation
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in design and technology, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Design and technology is taught as part of a half-termly or termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. At Graveney Primary School, we ensure that design and technology is given the same importance as the core subjects, as we feel this is important in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences.
The design and technology curriculum at Graveney Primary School is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons for their class using Curriculum Maestro. The teachers can use this document to plan their design and technology lessons suitable to their class’s interests and what they want to learn about. The progression of the Curriculum Maestro ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.
When teaching design and technology, teachers should follow the children’s interests to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced. A variety of teaching approaches are used based on the teacher’s judgement.
At Graveney Primary School, we provide a variety of opportunities for design and technology learning to take place inside and outside the classroom. Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional design and technology learning outside the classroom. At Graveney Primary School, the children have many opportunities to experience design and technology on educational visits. The children may visit local museums, food establishments and had visitors into school to share learning and have hands on experiences.
Impact
Within design and technology, we strive to prepare children to take part in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. We aim to encourage children to become creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team. Through the study of design and technology, children combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, as well as of functions and industrial practices. This allows them to reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and its impact. Our design and technology curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
- Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
- Images of the children’s practical learning.
- Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books and work are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
- Marking of work in books.