Design Technology

Intent

Design and Technology prepares children to take part in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. Therefore, we want the children at Burton-on-the-Wolds Primary School, to develop their imagination, their critical thinking and their understanding of the world around them through their love of Design and Technology. We aim for our children to question and think innovatively about the world around them in order to design and develop their own products with a purpose in mind.

Children will build and apply the knowledge and skills needed to design high quality products, which they will test and refine. They are given the opportunity to understand nutrition and learn how to cook and use equipment safely. Our Design and Technology curriculum requires children to draw on skills within Mathematics, Art, Science and Computing. Children will deepen their understanding and independence within all of these subject areas during their Design and Technology lessons.

Children are given regular opportunities to develop their understanding of the technological world. We will evaluate past and present design technology and the ways these have influenced modern society. The children are taught to combine their designing and making skills with knowledge and understanding in order to design and make a product. Knowledge and 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.


Implementation


To realise the intent of our DT Curriculum, detailed above, we use the KAPOW scheme of work for Design and Technology.

The Design and Technology National Curriculum outlines the three main stages of the design process:


Each stage of the design process is underpinned by the technical knowledge which encompasses the contextual, historical and technical understanding required for each strand.

Cooking and Nutrition has a separate section, with a focus on specific principles, skills and techniques in food, including where food comes from, diet and seasonality.


The National Curriculum organizes the Design and Technology attainment targets under four subheadings: Design, Make, Evaluate and Technical Knowledge. These make up the four KAPOW Primary Strands:

Design

Make

Evaluate

Technical Knowledge


Cooking and Nutrition is given a particular focus in the National Curriculum and the KAPOW scheme makes this one of the six key areas that pupils revisit throughout their time at our school. The six areas are:


Kapow Primary’s Design and Technology Scheme has a clear progression of knowledge and skills within these strands and key areas across each year group. The scheme has a National Curriculum overview that shows which units cover each of the national

curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the four strands.

The scheme also has a progression document that shows the skills and knowledge that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each Key Stage.

Through Kapow’s Design and Technology scheme, pupils respond to design briefs and scenarios that require consideration of the needs of others, developing their knowledge and skills in the six areas. Each of the Key Areas follows the design process (design, make and evaluate) and has a particular theme and focus from the technical knowledge or cooking and nutrition section of the curriculum. The scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key areas revisited again and again with increasing complexity, allowing

pupils to revisit and build on their previous learning. All lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including practical hands on, computer-based and inventive tasks. This variety ensures that lessons are

engaging and appealing to those with variety of learning styles. Differentiated guidance is available for all lessons to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch and challenge pupils are available when needed. Knowledge organisers are used in each unit to support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary. Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust DT curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD. Kapow Primary has materials to support all teachers in the delivery of lessons to a high standard. DT is timetabled in four blocks across each academic year meaning that children receive eight units in Key Stage One, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2. These units are taught across 1-2 weeks and each contain 5 lessons of 45 minutes – 1 hour in length.


Children are given opportunities to showcase their DT work through a range of display mechanisms. DT work is posted regularly on our school APP, can be seen on display boards around school and all childrendisplay work in our regular curriculum showcase event which includes a ‘Design Exhibition’. Children with a particular love of DT are encourage to develop their interest further via our wider

opportunities. These include a Lego club, a craft club run by a members of the local community and a cooking club. Children are also selected to take part in DT curriculum days in partnership with our local collaborative of schools.

Impact


The impact of our DT curriculum is monitored through a range of formative and summative strategies used in school. Each lesson plan includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against learning objectives. Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and knowledge catcher which can be used at the start and/or the end of the unit to aid judgements.

A spreadsheet is used and updated during an DT unit, to show which children have gained a secureunderstanding of knowledge and skills that have been covered. The spreadsheet also shows which children may have shown greater depth understanding of key knowledge and skills. This spreadsheet is a formative tool for teachers and summative document for leaders.Leaders monitor impact of the DT curriculum via regular book scrutiny, learning walks and by scrutinising assessment data as well as by talking to pupils about their learning.

After the implementation of the DT curriculum, pupils should leave our school equipped with a range of knowledge and skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education and be innovative and resourceful members of society. The expected impacted of following the Kapow scheme of work is that children will: