Design Technology

Design Technology

Subject Lead: Mr Williams

At St. Joseph’s, we are committed to ensuring the curriculum is purposeful, progressive and empowering for every child. We value all of our children and celebrate diversity of experience, need, interest, and achievement. Our curriculum provokes curiosity and excitement for all children at St. Joseph’s. We recognise that we are building the foundations for life-long learning with Christ at the centre. A shared love of literature throughout school and our faith life and Gospel values, Trust Character Virtues and British Values, sits alongside our curriculum drivers. Our curriculum drivers are what makes our curriculum unique to us here at St. Joseph’s. They are woven through all that we do and underpin our shared belief that our role is to support and help our children to understand their place within their local town, their country and in their world as a global citizen; to have experiences that become part of their life story; and aspire to achieve their very best, having been shown that there is a world of possibility awaiting them, outside of the school gates.

Intent

At St Joseph’s Catholic Academy, we intend for children to:

• develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
• be engaged and inspired with a real-life context for their learning.
• become problem solvers through practical tasks, using creativity and imagination.
• develop knowledge and understanding of technology and products used in our society, past and present.
• build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design, make, and evaluate high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users.

Implementation

At St. Joseph’s we follow the Design and Technology National Curriculum, we teach this through three strands:

Construction, including Electrical
Food Technology
Textiles

Each term of learning begins in the same way with children being given a design brief; ranging from building the ‘Village of St. Joseph’ to designing a meal for the Queen. The brief is chosen because it will help the children develop a particular skill across the strands and areas which is being taught. See St. Joseph's;

Following a detailed understanding of the brief, pupils will then follow the ‘Design, Make, Evaluate’ process to develop their idea. Through this process children will develop their communication, confidence, and creativity, applying new knowledge and skills as the term progresses.

In Key Stage 1 this looks like:

Design:

• Design should be rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to the learning.
• Planned through appropriate formats: drawing, templates, talking and mock-ups.

Make:

• Children should be given a range of tools for their projects to choose from.
• Children should use a wide range of materials and components; textiles, construction equipment and ingredients.

Evaluate:

• Evaluate existing products.
• Evaluate their own products against design criteria.

In Key Stage 2 this looks like:

Design:

• Rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to the learning.
• Researched designs based on functional, appealing products with purpose.
• Planned by appropriate methods; annotated sketches, cross-sectional diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer aided design.

Make:

• Children can select from a wider range of tools than KS1.
• Children should use from and select a wider range of materials and components; textiles, construction equipment and ingredients.

Evaluate:

• Evaluations should be in comparison to existing products.
• Children should evaluate against a design criteria.
• Children should understand how key events and individuals have helped shape design and technology globally – products are in context!

Impact

• Engaged children who are all challenged
• Children have a good knowledge of skills and processes used in DT which they can implement independently.
• Children show imagination and creativity which can be used both in and outside of school.