Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.
Intent
At St. Nicholas C of E Primary School, our intention is that every child will have the opportunity to learn and expand on their understanding of Design and Technology in an inclusive and cross curricular way.
Our Design and Technology curriculum enables our children to develop an understanding of the world and how we live and work within it by investigating technological processes and manufactured products, pupils can also appreciate and understand the important contribution these make to our society.
Implementation
At St. Nicholas C of E Primary School, we follow the National Curriculum. Design and Technology encourages the children to be critical thinkers, problem solve and show resilience as the children work through the design process. They finish this work by evaluating their own work against their own design criteria. We are creative and imaginative with our approach to the curriculum, by working this way we allow the pupils to learn to design and make products to tackle real and relevant problems with an intended user in mind.
Children from EYFS to Year 6 explore topics such as; food technology, electrical systems, textiles and structures through termly units. Children develop their learning through a progression of skills, they build upon their knowledge and learn new vocabulary this enables them to deepen their understanding. Assessment is used by teachers to ensure that pupils are scaffolded appropriately and additionally, that children are properly challenged.
Design and Technology is a cross-curricular subject in our school, it maintains strong links to the wider curriculum. We link our DT projects to what we are learning in topics such as; Science (Music-we make musical instruments) and PSHE (Food – designing a healthy plate).
Impact
We use a range of strategies to assess what skills and knowledge the children have attained each term including the following:
- Book looks
- Pupil Interviews
- Learning Walks
- Regular feedback each lesson
