INTENT

In EYFS, a significant proportion of meeting the early learning goals linked to DT and beyond, is delivered through high-quality D&T experiences and activities, enabling children to ‘safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function’ and ‘use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes’.                 

In KS1, this prior learning is built upon using ‘project on a page’ planning.  Children improve their knowledge & skills by working through the six essentials of good practice in at least three, 8-12 hour, DT units per academic year.  The six essentials ensure children learn to think carefully about: the user, the purpose, functionality, design decisions, innovation and authenticity.  In each project children make progress in their investigative and evaluative activities, (learn from an existing range of products and find out about DT in the wider world), Focused tasks, (where they are taught specific technical knowledge, designing skills and making skills), and a design make and evaluate assignment, (where children create functional products with users and purposes in mind.

It is our intent to build a Design Technology curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Children will know more, remember more and understand more. Our Design Technology curriculum intends to equip children with appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding of key vocabulary so that they can talk like a market researcher, designer, engineer, cook or craftsperson by the time they leave our setting, so that they can continue to flourish in their next stage of education and beyond.

IMPLEMENTATION

Our Design and Technology curriculum is implemented through a variety of different projects linked directly to our school curriculum and based around the DT Association guidance of which we are members. 

• Through the support of the Design and Technology Association (DATA) scheme, Projects on a Page, children will experience an array of different progressive and linkable skills and techniques This ensures that children are constantly building upon previous learning and are able to expand their knowledge and understanding of problem solving, designing and constructing different products. Usually a week each term is set aside to complete each project so children are fully immersed in the design-make-evaluate process.
• The Design and Technology progression document clearly identifies the specific knowledge and skills to be taught in each year group and the progression within each  skill.
• Children are given a variety of real life products to explore in great detail, expanding their knowledge of how they look and work, allowing children to evaluate products against their target market and purpose.
• For each project, children follow the design-make-evaluate sequence, allowing children time to reflect upon their design and products and think of ways that they could be improved or adapted. Teachers support and model increasingly progressive evaluative skills to enable children to create products of a high-quality throughout school.
• Children are given a design brief to put the need for the product in context. Where possible, teachers ensure that the brief is linked to another area of their learning or has relevance to the children to inspire their imagination and eagerness to create and problem solve.
• Safety is explained and modelled at the start of, and throughout each product including food hygiene instructions
• Children are encouraged in class , through specific homework projects and in other subjects such as Science to develop their 'technical knowledge;'  building structures and exploring mechanisms

IMPACT

In the EYFS, children’s work is recorded on Tapestry and some can be seen on display within the environment. In KS1, children’s initial ideas, designs and evaluations are usually recorded in their learning journey, along with a photograph of their finished product.  Leaders speak to children about their work, with the expectation that they can talk like a market researcher, designer, engineer, cook or craft-maker.  Children share their work with others through authentic experiences, including sharing of learning events within the school and the wider community.  The impact being that children know more, remember more and understand more about Design Technology enabling them to reach age-related expectations.  As designers, children will develop skills, attributes and language that they can use beyond school and into adulthood.