INTENT

It is our aim at The Holt Primary School to provide our children with opportunities to use a range of materials creatively to design, make and evaluate products. We aim to develop a curiosity for how things work and are made, solve problems and suggest how things can be improved.  In order to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination we inspire their curiosity and nurture the thought processes behind designs as well as develop their skills in making and building and technical knowledge. This includes textiles, food and construction.

'Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.' Steve Jobs

IMPLEMENTATION

Design Technology has a very important place in our curriculum. We see this as a vehicle for creativity and individual expression and it provides opportunities for collaborative work. It is an important form of cultural expression and, therefore, has significance and meaning for all our children. We link our design technology curriculum, wherever possible to the topics the children are learning about and the real world.

Our design and technology lessons encourage the designing and making of products to solve real and relevant problems. Our pupils learn to select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics. The approach follows a predetermined sequence: Task - Imagine-Plan-Create-Improve -Share

National Curriculum Art Programmes of Study

National curriculum in England: design and technology programmes of study - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 In all Design and technology lessons we will reinforce our school’s characteristics of good learning:

 Respect. Reflective. Responsible. Resourceful. Resilient. Reasoning.

IMPACT

Our Design and Technology Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. By the end of the primary journey, we aim for all our pupils to have developed a wide range of skills and techniques to problem solve and create products safely. We aim for links to be understood to other curriculum areas and how their learning will aid them in their future life.

If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes
• A celebration of learning at the end of a unit
• Pupil discussions about their learning

The impact of our design and technology curriculum will be measured by assessment procedures which allow us to measure outcomes against statements outlines within our progression documents.

Assessment procedures

Teachers will use ongoing assessment for learning techniques to support the development of vocabulary and the acquisition of new knowledge.  A range of information gathering activities such as learning flashbacks and progress pauses will be used to ascertain how well children are learning within this subject and what they need next to support their understanding.