Design Technology

Our Design and Technology Coordinator are Miss E. Galloway and Ms. R. Sarkar

Why do we teach what we teach? (Our intent)

At St Mary’s our Design Technology curriculum develops children’s skills and knowledge in design, structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and Food and Nutrition. We want all children to have the opportunity to be imaginative and creative, to design and make products considering their own and each other’s needs, wants and values.

We aim for all children to begin to research and design products that solve real and relevant problems.

We want Design Technology to help prepare our children, to give them opportunities, responsibilities and experiences they need to be successful in later life.

We want children at St Mary’s to learn how products and systems are designed and manufactured, how to be innovative and to make creative use of a variety of resources including traditional and digital technologies, to improve the world around them. At the centre of the subject is creativity and imagination.

How do we teach it? (Our implementation)

The teaching of Design Technology across the school follows the National Curriculum.

At St Mary’s, we use the Projects on a Page scheme of work which develops children’s skills and knowledge in design, structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and Food and Nutrition. We try to offer the children as many hands on and real life, practical problems as possible. These involve working with tools and machinery on physical materials like wood, metals and plastic. This involves designing, planning and building things.

We focus on the following key skills:

Research existing products.
Design a product.
Make a product.
Evaluate a product.

Key skills are revisited again and again with increasing complexity in a spiral curriculum model. This allows children to retrieve and build on their previous learning.

The progression of skills and knowledge allows teachers to assess the impact over the course of a unit and year.

The scheme of learning is used to identify prior links and future learning which informs teacher assessment and allows building blocks of learning to further develop schemas within topics and across subjects.

Teachers use assessment for learning within lessons to provide live feedback to allow pupils to deepen their understanding and identify gaps in knowledge and skills. Knowledge reviews are planned for spaced retrieval and allow for misconceptions to be addressed and further embed pupils understanding of key knowledge, skills and vocabulary.

Enquiry questions are used to assess the impact of the teaching of knowledge, skills and vocabulary by allowing pupils to apply their understanding through reflections and critical thinking.

Children design products with a purpose in mind and an intended user of the products.

Children are involved in the evaluation, dialogue and decision making about the quality of their outcomes and improvements they need to make.

Food technology is implemented across the school with children developing an understanding of where food comes from, the importance of a varied healthy diet and how to prepare this. The children grow a variety of vegetables at our school which are then prepared to make healthy meals. The children’s work is very often cross-curricular, and helps them to develop important making skills, as well as show their knowledge and understanding in history, geography and science.

What is the difference that this makes? (Our impact)

Children at St Mary’s School enjoy self-expression that they experience in Design Technology. By taking part in regular discussions and decision-making processes, children will be able to talk confidently about their learning journey and have a growing understanding of how to improve.

Sketchbook work and loose paperwork allow children to build a body of work and skills which cover all formal elements and ultimately prepare them for the rigour of secondary education.