Design Technology
DT at MOPPS
Intent
We believe that Design and Technology should be taught in a way that inspires creativity and imagination. Our pupils are encouraged to consider real-life problems: designing, making and evaluating products considering the product, purpose and user.
Our Design and Technology curriculum intends to be inspiring, practical, meaningful and memorable. Using creativity and imagination. Pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts. Children will be able to plan, think creatively, solve problems, consider the needs of others, take risks, be resourceful, be innovative and be enterprising.
Children will focus on designers that have shaped the world. This will enable children to gain a deeper understanding of the skills and traits of a successful designer. Across all year groups children should be designing and making Something for Somebody for Some Purpose. Considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values There will also be increased opportunities for computer aided design.
Projects are often cross-curricular and support a broad range of subject knowledge, drawing on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. Our Design and Technology curriculum enables children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas such as Maths, English and Science. For instance, measuring and sawing wood, drawing labelled diagrams and seeing forces in action. There are many opportunities for children to practice technological skills through Forest School and outdoor play, such as building structures, using pulleys and preparing and cooking food.
Within Design and Technology children will learn and build on a range of practical and technical skills (see progression of skills), testing their ideas and critiquing and evaluating both their own products and the work of others. The D & T curriculum will help to equip children with life skills, knowledge and understanding whilst acquiring the substantive and disciplinary knowledge required to enable children to become innovative designers.
Our Medium Term plans are based on a scheme of work produced by the Design and Technology Association; Projects on a Page.
Implementation
The Design Technology National Curriculum outlines the three main stages of the design process: design, make and evaluate. Each stage of the design process is underpinned by technological knowledge which encompasses the contextual, historical and technical understanding required for each strand. These strands are; Design, Make, Evaluate, Technical Knowledge and Cooking and Nutrition
The MOPPS curriculum offers a range of exciting projects that solve real and relevant problems. Through each project, children will learn and apply a set of technical skills within the key areas of DT; Structures, Mechanical systems, Electrical systems and control, Textiles and Cooking and Nutrition. The children also draw upon knowledge and skills within Maths, Science, computing and Art.
Each project within KS1 and KS2 is taught in a termly ‘block’ which comprises approximately 2 hours for each stage; Research and design, planning, making and an evaluation, totaling 6 hours per term. Within each Key stage 1 children will cover each strand of the curriculum once and twice within Key stage 2, once in LKS2 and once in UKS2.
Cooking and Nutrition is taught yearly and is embedded in other areas across the curriculum including in cross curricular opportunities as we recognise importance in preparing children for life.
A 4th additional STEM topic with a focus on Electrical systems is added in the Summer term of KS2. Our curriculum is designed as a spiral curriculum, with key areas revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revisit and build on their previous learning. Lessons incorporate independent tasks, paired and group work including practical hands-on, computer-based and inventive tasks.
Substantive knowledge sets out the subject-specific content that is to be learned - i.e. the National Curriculum units that can be separated into the disciplines of Textiles, Cooking and Nutrition, Structures and Mechanical and Electrical systems. This is the knowledge of the products of DT.
Disciplinary knowledge considers how substantive knowledge originates, is debated and is revised - i.e. how we create, contest and evaluate substantive knowledge over time. Disciplinary knowledge tells us how we know what we know; it is through disciplinary knowledge that pupils learn the skill practices of DT. It gives an insight into the ways that designers think - how they ask questions, design, make and evaluate products.
Disciplinary knowledge enables one to ‘think like a Designers
Impact
The Expected impact of our DT curriculum is that children will be able to achieve the following:
Meet the End of Key stage expectations outlined in the National Curriculum and EYFS Framework
Understand the functional and aesthetic properties of a range of materials and resources
Understand how to use and combine tools to carry out different processes for shaping, decorating and manufacturing products
Build and apply a repertoire of skills, knowledge and understanding to produce high quality, innovative outcomes, including models, prototypes, CAD and products to fulfil the needs of users and scenarios
Understand and apply the principles of healthy eating, diets and recipes, including key processes, food groups and cooking equipment.
Have an appreciation for key individuals, inventions and events in history and of today that impact our world
Recognise where our decisions can impact the wider world in terms of community, social and environmental issues.
Self-evaluate and reflect on learning at different stages and identify areas to improve
By the end of each Key stage, children have a set of DT skills embedded. They can talk about real life designers or designs and the impact they have had on the world. . We use a range of strategies to assess these skills and knowledge including the following:
*Book monitoring
*Self assessment
*Pupil voice
*Verbal feedback each lesson
Design and Technology in EYFS
The EYFS framework is structured very differently to the national curriculum as it is organised across seven areas of learning rather than subject areas. This document outlines how the skills taught across EYFS feed into national curriculum subjects.
In EYFS pupils are taught Design Technology mostly through the strands Expressive Arts and Design and Physical Development
The early learning goals for Expressive Arts and Design indicate what children should know, understand and be able to do by the end of the reception year. A significant proportion of this learning should be 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’. D&T also makes an important contribution to young children’s learning across the remaining six areas of the EYFS framework, including Understanding the World, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, and Communication and Language.
Opportunities for DT are also evident within the provision for example:
Construction area: Children have access to a wide variety of construction kits where they can build, join, stack, balance and adapt their own constructions. Outside the children have access to a wide variety of large scale resources such as, crates, drain pipes, tubes & planks giving them the opportunity to design make, adapt, problem solve, modify and put structures to the test together alongside their peers.
Art area: children have the opportunity to use a variety of tools and techniques and processes and select and combine using a variety of materials.
Fine Motor: We use tools and techniques used for design and technology such as scissors, punches, threading, sewing, hammering to develop those all important fine motor skills.