Design Technology
Intent
At Meadowhead Infant School, we aim to give pupils opportunities to master key practical skills, design and make a range of different products related to their topic as well as, evaluate and test what they’ve made. We use a skills based scheme of work Kapow where all children are taught to combine their designing and making skills with knowledge and understanding in order to design and make a product. Skills are taught progressively to ensure that all children are able to learn and practice in order to develop as they move through the school. Evaluation is an integral part of the design process and allows children to adapt and improve their product, this is a key skill which they need throughout their life. Design and Technology allows children to apply the knowledge and skills learned in other subjects, particularly Maths, Science and Art.
Children throughout the school are taught about cooking and nutrition in the curriculum, which enables them to make informed healthy eating choices. We believe teaching pupils to cook is an important part of promoting a whole school approach to health and wellbeing.
Implementation
At Meadowhead Infants the teaching of DT should follow the design, make and evaluate cycle. Each stage should be rooted in technical knowledge. The design process should be rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning. While making, children should be given choice and a range of tools to choose freely from. To evaluate, children should be able to evaluate their own products against a design criteria. Each of these steps should be rooted in technical knowledge and vocabulary. DT should be taught to a high standard, where each of the stages should be given equal weight. There should be evidence in each of these stages on working wall and in their topic books which should also develop to show clear progression across the key stages as they are passed up through each year group. In the EYFS curriculum children are taught to safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques. They think about uses and purposes, represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through DT when making.
At Meadowhead Infants Design and Technology looks like this:
Design:
- Design should be rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to the learning.
- Planned through appropriate formats: drawing, templates, talking and mock-ups.
Make:
- Children should be given a range of tools for their projects to choose from.
- Children should use a wide range of materials and components; textiles, construction equipment and ingredients.
Evaluate:
- Evaluate existing products.
- Evaluate their own products against design criteria.
These key concepts underpin the children’s learning through the year groups from Reception to Year 2. This enables pupils to reinforce and build upon prior learning, make connections and develop subject specific language.
Impact
We strive to ensure that our children’s attainment is in line with or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all our children. At Meadowhead Infants we can judge the success of our Design and Technology curriculum in the following ways:
- Using a clear progression of skills.
- Pupil conferencing – children happy, engaged, motivated to do well and challenged within the subject.
- Photographs and examples of work – show a clear progression of skills between the year groups.
- The DT subject leader can articulate and explain the progression of skills through KS1.
- Children demonstrate their understanding of key vocabulary through pupil voice evident during lesson observations and working folders. Pupil voice focuses on the ‘knowing more and remembering more’ principle and this is also evident through learning journey books
- Children demonstrate their understanding of key vocabulary through pupil voice evident during lesson observations