D.T

D.T
at St Anne’s Primary School

Intent

At St Anne’s our aim is to inspire a love of Design Technology in all of our children. We would like our pupils to be innovative and creative thinkers who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation and evaluation. They need to develop the confidence to take risks and be reflective learners who evaluate their work and the work of others. We aim to provide a design technology curriculum which sets out the appropriate skills, subject knowledge and concepts in line with the National Curriculum. Through our scheme of work, using PlanBee, we aim to build an awareness of the impact of design and technology on our lives and encourage pupils to become resourceful, enterprising citizens who will have the skills to contribute to future design advancements.

Implementation

As a school, we maintain strong links to the National Curriculum to ensure all aspects, knowledge and skills of Design and technology are being taught across all age groups. The three main stages of the design process are design, make and evaluate. Each stage is underpinned by technical knowledge. Cooking and nutrition is seen as a separate strand which focuses on specific principles, skills and techniques in food including where food comes from, diet and seasonality. We use PlanBee’s Design and Technology scheme throughout the school. Through the scheme pupils respond to design briefs and scenarios with key areas revisited with increasing complexity allowing pupils to build on previous learning. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including practical hands-on, computer based and inventive tasks. This means the lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles. Differentiated guidance and knowledge organisers are available for every lesson and unit through the scheme. Teachers use these to ensure lessons are accessed by all pupils, opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available and pupils build a foundation of factual knowledge. The teachers in our school ensure pupil progression is evident as each unit of lessons is taught. The subject co-ordinator ensures resources are kept up to date, monitors their subject, creates action plans and provides feedback to SLT when required. Foundation subjects are assessed at the end of each term stating whether children are working towards, at or exceeding age related expectations. This is then used to make sure all children are continuing to make progress and any children whose levels drop, or increase can be addressed accordingly.

Impact

Through the quality first teaching of Design Technology, we will see the impact of the subject in different ways. Through pupil voice, children will be able to talk about the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Children will be engaged in Design Technology lessons and want to find out more. Work will show that a range of topics are being covered, cross curricular links are made where possible and differentiated work set as appropriate. The school environment will be Design Technology rich through displays, resources and vocabulary etc. Assessments and monitoring will show standards in Design Technology will be high and will match standards in other subject areas.