DT

DT Long Term Planning

DT Skills Progression Map

Intent

Design and Technology is a skill that people use throughout their lives, on a daily basis. It enables children to develop increasingly challenging practical skills, which will help them in their future as citizens who make a positive contribution to society. The purpose of a school’s curriculum is to develop essential skills in life that can be applied to life as a developing adult, and it is our intent to enable children to utilise these skills for the remainder of their lives. At Beeston Primary School, we intend to deliver Design and Technology curriculum that is accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and achievement. We aim to have a curriculum which allows all students to become self-motivated and confident learners, who can work independently and as part of a team. We intend for all children to be able to develop the key skills of Design and Technology by the end of each academic year as we believe that learning and progressing their year provides a platform to continue building these skills for the rest of their lives. Through the teaching of Design and Technology, we aim to ensure that all learners develop technical and practical competencies, as well as the wider soft skills valued by employers. It is our intent to ensure our children consolidate on existing skills whilst learning new skills to become effective life-long learners, with a priority focus on enabling children to become problem solvers who are not afraid to make mistakes.

Implementation

Design and Technology will be implemented regularly in the timetables of each academic year at school and will aim to build on key skills from one-year group to the next. The department firmly believes that students learn best by ‘doing’ and by allowing them to experiment and take risks in a safe and positive learning environment, we aim to build their confidence as life-long learners. This will be achieved through imaginative teaching that embraces new technologies and resembles modern industrial processes whilst retaining the best of traditional practices. At the heart of this is the desire to deliver a curriculum in which students express creativity through designs and produce high quality outcomes. The children will be given choice of a range of tools and materials to choose freely from to help build their independence. When evaluating, children should be able to make judgements about their own products against a design criteria. All teaching of Design and Technology should follow the research, design, make and evaluate cycle and each stage should be rooted in technical knowledge and vocabulary. The design process will be rooted in real life, relevant contexts to provide meaning in learning. Furthermore, pupils at Beeston Primary school will learn about designers and their work (especially British designers) and learn about the importance of being a designer/engineer. Evidence will be provided of each of these stages of design and technology and will show progression across year groups and key stages.

In KS1 this looks like:

Research:

• Safely use and experiment with a variety of materials and tools
• Use knowledge of other designs and products

Design:

• Rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning
• Planned through talk, drawings, mock-ups and sharing

Make:

• Able to choose from a range of tools and materials & components; textiles, construction equipment and ingredients
• Using kitchen equipment safely and appropriately

Evaluate:

• Evaluate existing products
• Evaluate their own products against the design criteria

In KS2 this looks like:

Research:

• Safely use and experiment with a variety of materials, tools and techniques
• Experiment with colour, design, texture, form and function

Design:

• Rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to the learning
• Researched designs based on functional, appealing products with a specific purpose
• Planned by appropriate methods; annotated sketches, diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer-aided design.

Make:

• Children select from a wider range of tools than in KS1
• Children will select from and use a wider range of materials and components; textiles, construction, equipment and ingredients

Evaluate:

• Evaluations should be in comparison to existing products
• Children will evaluate against a design criteria
• Children should understand how key events and individuals have helped shape design and technology globally

Impact

Our Design and Technology curriculum is aimed at being engaging and enjoyable for the children, bring a sense of practical purpose to their skills which they can develop each year. It is important that our pupils learn to improvise and adapt to overcome problems in a learning environment in which they feel supported and secure in making mistakes. Our aim is not to achieve perfection, but to recognise and understand that mistakes are part of our learning journey, and we can make improvements because of making these mistakes. It is important that the children engage with the work they do and are able to communicate openly about their work, the processes and the finished product. We aim to enable students to combine their designing and making skills with knowledge and understanding in order to research, design, make and evaluate products of a high quality. At Beeston Primary School, we aim to ensure that our pupils become lifelong learners, with the ability to use the skills they acquire in their short time at Primary School. We aim to ensure the children are confident in using these skills and applying them to everyday life. This includes working collaboratively with others, which will aid in their future life as citizens, when working with others or a client. Our overarching goal is to ensure that the children of Beeston Primary end their journey at primary school with the confidence and knowledge of the making, designing and evaluating cycle, enabling them to be an active part in the ever modernising world in which they live today.