Design and Technology (DT)

Intent

At Willowbrook Primary School we value D&T as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum that is relevant to our rapidly changing world.

We encourage children to use their creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve relevant problems within a variety of contexts.

Through our school vision, we strive to have children who ‘have a passion for life-long learning’ and ‘curiosity’ to explore different designers and develop a more rigorous understanding of D&T. We want our children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. Our D&T curriculum provides children with opportunities to research, represent their ideas, explore and investigate,  develop their ideas, make a product and evaluate their work. Children will be exposed to a wide range of media including textiles, food and woodwork; through this, children will develop their skills, vocabulary and resilience.

D&T in our school is about inspiring the children in a rigorous and practical subject exposing them to high quality designers, engineers and inventors. We believe that high-quality D&T lessons will inspire children to think independently, innovatively and develop creative, procedural and technical understanding.

We aim to immerse our children in different cultures through D&T to aid their knowledge and understanding. Understanding what it is to be British and the values of our nation are central to our work and through D&T, we intend to play a role in this by developing a knowledge and appreciation of the traditions of British inventors, designers and sculptors and the ways in which D&T has been central to our culture throughout history.

Implementation

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in DT, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. DT is taught as part of a half-termly topic focusing on knowledge and skills stated in 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England and, ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Each Design and Technology project will be taught in half term blocks or during Design and Technology mornings/ afternoons/ days, dependant on the needs of the project being worked on.  Sometimes there might be a weekly DT lesson.

Impact 

We measure the impact of our curriculum through moderation in staff meetings where pupil’s work is scrutinised and there is the opportunity for dialogue between teacher’s to understand their class’s work. Learning walks will also be completed where pupil’s will be interviewed about their learning (pupil voice).

It is important that when assessing our impact, we refer back to the aims of both The National Curriculum and of our own curriculum.

Assessment, Recording and Reporting

• Children in Early Years Foundation Stage are assessed within Expressive Arts and Design. Age related expectation levels are reported at the end of the year. 
• Children in Key Stages 1 and 2 will keep sketches, plan drawings, paper mock-ups, notes and evaluations on a single page of A3. These can be used for assessment purposes and for monitoring progression.
• Teachers make notes at the end of projects on children who were significant above or below expectations set out in the project planners; this will inform future planning.
• Children are encouraged to make personal assessments of their own work through evaluating activities and identifying what they need to do to improve.

Whilst the assessment of knowledge and skills are addressed above, it is important we also look at how our teaching has led to achieve the school aims.