Design Technology

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you look deeper, it's really how it works."

Steve Jobs

How Design Technology Links with our KEYS Curriculum

DT is a vital part of our KEYS curriculum (Knowledge and Skills Empower You to Succeed).  It provides children with a real life context for learning. Through the DT curriculum, children will learn about engineers, designers, chefs and architects to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products with a real life purpose.

Attributes of a Good Designer at Cronton:

• Curiosity about everyday items and a willingness to explore their purpose and how they are made.
• Collaborative and co-operative
• Design from observation, memory and imagination.
• Knowledge and skills to select and use materials, processes and techniques they have learned and develop them further.
• Independence, initiative and originality in their approach to their work.
• Knowledge and understanding of  other designers, including those from our heritage, from periods of history and those that are contemporary.
• Mathematician
• Reflective, analytic and able to critically evaluate their own work and that of others.

Intent

The DT curriculum is intended to develop:

• Children’s understanding of the need for a criteria for a product, through examining and exploring working models where possible.
• Children’s understanding of how key events and individuals have helped shape design and technology globally.
• Children’s understanding of and abilities in the process used to take a product from initial design to finished article.

It builds from the exploratory experiences in the Early Years Foundation Stage to enable the children to develop and refine their skills, knowledge of materials, joining methods and design as they progress through their primary education. 

Implementation

Skills and knowledge are developed throughout each DT topic and are mapped across the school to ensure progression. Across Key Stage One, Lower Key Stage Two and Upper Key Stage Two, the children will have the opportunity to develop their creative knowledge and skills in investigating mechanisms, structures, techniques with textiles and food technology. The sequence of lessons will include:

• Key knowledge on the background of the unit to be studied. This enables links to other curriculum areas, such as history and geography, with children developing their knowledge of DT from different historical periods and of famous individuals within this curriculum area.
• Key vocabulary related to the unit studied.
• Exploration of existing products and working examples.
• Design: Design should be rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to the learning. Designs should be 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 and the technical skills and knowledge to use them appropriately, safely and effectively. They should use a wide range of materials and components; textiles, construction equipment and ingredients.
• Evaluate: Children should be taught to evaluate existing products and their own products against design criteria.

The children practise and develop mastery in the key processes required in creating mechanisms, structures and food items and develop their confidence.

Lesson Structure

Design Technology lessons have a set format that is followed to maintain consistency, progression and allow for all the knowledge and skills being implemented.

The lesson structure has been designed to ensure the children learn more and remember more, combining recapping with learning new knowledge and allowing children to make links across skills and knowledge. 

Impact

Children experience the satisfaction of following a design process through to having a working, finished product. Children will know more, remember more and understand more about Design Technology. The large majority of children will achieve age related expectations in Design Technology. As designers children will develop skills and attributes they can use beyond school and into adulthood. The DT curriculum at Cronton C.E. contributes to children’s personal development in creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection.