Design and Technology
Intent
At Christ Church, the Design and Technology (DT) curriculum offers distinctive chances for every child to engage in learning, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving, both independently and collaboratively.
The DT Curriculum ensures that pupils are well-equipped with the technical knowledge and vocabulary to support them in the design and making of their product. Ensuring that pupils can articulate the skills that they have applied, the equipment that they use and the choices they make while making their product.
Our curriculum is designed to ignite curiosity and foster a lifelong love of learning, enriched with diverse experiences and celebrations of cultural diversity through the study of designers from different cultures. Continuously evolving to meet the needs of our students and society, we set high expectations, empowering children to aim high and achieve their goals, regardless of where they start.
We intend for all children to acquire appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum. It is our aim to create strong cross curricular links with other subjects, such as English, Mathematics, Science, Computing, and Art. We want Design and Technology to give our children opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences that they will need to be successful in later life.
Implementation
Design and Technology is an inspiring, broad and balanced subject. We follow the CUSP Design and Technology Scheme, which is organised into blocks. Each block covers a particular set of disciplines, including food and nutrition, mechanisms, structures, systems, electrical systems, understanding materials and textiles. Vertical progression in each discipline has been deliberately woven into the fabric of the curriculum so that pupils revisit key disciplines throughout their Primary journey at increasing degrees of challenge and complexity.
Each block from Year 1 to Year 6 addresses the principles of designing, making, and evaluating as well as incorporating relevant technical knowledge and understanding how these skills are used in context. This extends to dedicated, whole-school, DT weeks, such as the CUSP Food Festival. Throughout the curriculum, pupils are introduced to specific designers, chefs and nutritionists, helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement and increase the cultural capital from which pupils can draw from in the future.
During the EYFS pupils explore and use a variety of media and materials through a combination of child initiated and adult directed activities. They have the opportunities to learn to:
- Use different media and materials to express their own ideas.
- Use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about form, function and purpose
- Make plans and construct with a purpose in mind using a variety of resources
- Develop skills to use simple tools and techniques appropriately, effectively and safely
- Select appropriate resources for a product and adapt their work where necessary
- Cook and prepare food adhering to good health and hygiene routines
As a school, we promote Design and Technology in the wider school through a DT after school club, which alternates between textiles and gardening. In the gardening sessions, the children learn about where our food comes from by growing their own, and the importance of a balanced, healthy and varied diet and how to prepare this.
Impact
The Design and Technology Curriculum will inspire pupils to acquire knowledge as designers and technologists and enables them to skilfully apply their understanding. The children will develop a critical understanding of how Design and Technology impacts on daily life and the wider world, to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world and are encouraged to become innovators and risk-takers.
By the time children leave year 6 they will:
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 and critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others.
understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook. Children will design and make a range of products.
know more, remember more, do more, demonstrating this knowledge when using tools or skills in other areas of the curriculum and in opportunities out of school.
Develop skills and attributes they can use beyond school and into adulthood.
