Design and Technology

Curriculum Leader: Sian Kirwan

Intent

At Howard we intend to build a DT curriculum which develops children’s learning and acquisition of knowledge and skills. We believe that the Design Technology curriculum can enhance our children’s education by making links with children’s learning in other subjects as well as providing them with the vital skills they need to have a well-rounded education such as sewing and cooking. 

Our curriculum intends to push and extend children’s thinking as well as foster their creative ideas through a wide variety of activities which involve building their designs with pulley systems, cogs and cams mechanisms.  

Our curriculum intends to give children exposure to both local and wider-world culture through the topics studied such as creating miniature playground rides which could feature in a local fairground or cuisines from around the world. 

Implementation

Our curriculum has been designed to draw on the National Curriculum’s four aims: 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 the work of others  understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook. Where applicable, units of study have been designed to support and enhance children’s learning in other subjects within the curriculum. 

Skills and knowledge studied within the DT curriculum, have been developed and chosen to ensure progression of skills across the year groups. The Progression of Skills document maps out how skills and knowledge are revisited across Key Stage 2 to practise skills and develop mastery. 

An inquiry based approach enables children to ask questions, develop their creativity and analyse skills and techniques to choose appropriate materials, critique their own work and that of others and offer opportunities to redesign based on their evaluations. The DT curriculum is supported with the availability of high quality resources which are used to support children with becoming familiar with and confident with a wide range of media. 

Impact

As DT is taught termly, children have regular opportunities to share their designs and creations with their peers, at home and on display around the school. A new display for both Art and Design will be used to celebrate children’s achievements in this area, instilling confidence and a sense of pride and achievement for our pupils. Pupil voice and staff surveys will be used to gather feedback and information in order to refine and improve our DT curriculum and measure the impact on the children. Our hope is to support children to develop life-long skills as well as their independence and creativity.