Intent, Implementation and Impact for Design Technology

Intent

At St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that Design Technology should be an inspiring subject that teaches and develops many skills which can be used throughout the lives of our children.  We want to open our children’s eyes to a world of possibilities, including introducing our children to design based careers, such as engineers.  Through a broad and balanced curriculum, the children are able to develop a wide range of skills and knowledge that can be applied within many different contexts, in and out of school, nurturing them as they develop their abilities to think creatively and solve problems.  We provide many opportunities for the children to develop a variety of designs for a range of target audiences.  They will understand the importance of resilience within the design process as they evaluate and improve at every stage of the design.  It is our intention that the enjoyment of this subject will inspire our children to be the designers of the future.

Aims

• Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world-Technical Knowledge-Technical Knowledge
• Build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users-Design and Make.
• Evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others-Evaluate.
• Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook simple recipes-Cooking and Nutrition.

Implementation

Our design technology curriculum is planned in units for each year group.  These units are sometimes linked to the curriculum, mainly history, but this isn’t always appropriate.  Each year group complete three design technology units, 1 per term, except for upper key stage 2, who complete 2 longer and more in-depth units per year.  We ensure that in each of the Key Stages, the children complete at least one unit focusing on each of the main themes of Design Technology, Structures, Textiles, Mechanisms, Food and Electronics in KS2.

Our carefully design curriculum ensures the continuous and progressive  development of vital knowledge and skills.  The children are given opportunities to revisit and build upon previous learning for various design briefs as they progress through school.  We are enthusiastic about delivering varied experiences within our Design Technology lessons.  Our children are presented with varied design opportunities, including real life scenarios.  We believe that it is essential that children at St. Joseph’s become problem solvers.  We try to achieve this by encouraging critical thinking and inquisitive questioning to broaden children’s understanding.

From EYFS and upwards, the children learn about how things work, investigating and using a variety of construction kits, materials, tools and products, developing their making skills and handling appropriate tools and construction materials safely, with increasing control. We embed an understanding of the importance to research existing products and designers, evaluate products and to create new, original ideas both independently and collaboratively. We promote a multiple design approach, requiring children to prototype and evaluate their ideas at several stages of the design process before commencing to their final design idea and make. When evaluating, the children are required to complete a range of self, peer or group assessments, offering a wider viewpoint on their own design and those of their peers.

Design Technology at St. Joseph’s is an inclusive and much-loved subject. The children are inspired by the works of others to become creators and are encouraged by staff to ‘dream big’ as they are the inventors of tomorrow. We aim to provide opportunities to shine for all abilities, encouraging a joy of learning through design.

Impact

At St Joseph’s we are passionate about inspiring our children’s creativity, providing them with opportunities to develop a broad range of knowledge and skills throughout the various design processes. Through careful planning and progression of skills the children are able to grow both creatively and academically applying their knowledge and skills to a wide range of contexts.

Each unit of work follows a familiar design process and this is recorded in the children’s workbooks.  These workbooks are passed up to the next year group, and so become a record of the children’s Design Technology learning and provide evidence of the progression the children have made.  Teacher assessment is used throughout the unit enabling adaptation within the planning, to meet the needs of the class. Class discussions are a regular part of the lesson enabling children to reason and problem solve. Peer feedback is also used within classes and across key stages. Evaluating their work is a key part of the process and this is carried out either orally or in a written format across all year groups.

The impact of Design Technology is monitored through book scrutiny pupil interviews and staff discussions.