Design Technology
At Marton cum Grafton, we aim to provide children with a Design Technology education that is relevant in our rapidly changing world. We want our children to love Design and Technology and want to encourage our children to become problem solvers who can work creatively.
Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. We aim to instil qualities such as curiosity, enquiry and determination and want our pupils to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be architects, graphic designers, chefs or carpenters. Design and Technology is dynamic and multidimensional.
It is our intention to provide opportunities to solve real and relevant problems, allowing our pupils to develop essential everyday skills and unlock their potential to be the designers and innovators of tomorrow.
Children are inspired, engaged and excited to use their creativity and imagination, to research, design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values and thrive in learning how to work independently and collaboratively to gain an in-depth understanding of the creative and problem-solving process. The children are also given opportunities to reflect upon and evaluate past and present design technology, its uses and its effectiveness and are encouraged to become innovators and risk-takers.
Through a variety of creative and practical activities, we teach the knowledge, vocabulary, understanding and skills needed to engage in an iterative process of designing and making.
Children research products, develop design ideas and initial sketches, and showcase learned skills, technical knowledge and vocabulary, final designs, and evaluations.
We teach Design Technology skills discretely, making relevant cross-curricular links, and ensure all children access all areas of the Design Technology Curriculum. Teaching of Design Technology will follow the cycle of Research, Develop own ideas, Design, Make a final product and Evaluate
Beginning with the purpose of a product for a user, the children are encouraged to use the exploration of existing products to gain first-hand experience of existing approaches. We aim to promote creative problem solvers, both as individuals and part of a team and pupils develop their understanding of the ways in which people in the past and present have used design to meet their needs.
Teaching of Design Technology at Marton cum Grafton is based on the aims and purposes outlined in the National Curriculum and has fidelity to the academic discipline of design and technology
Academic fingerprint for Design Technology:
- develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world • 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
- 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
We have carefully designed a knowledge rich curriculum, underpinned by a progression of skills. The knowledge and skills build incrementally so that by the end of Key Stage 2 children know, understand and apply the subject content specified in the Programme of Study for Design Technology.
EYFS
Through Expressive Arts children are encouraged to construct and create purposefully selecting tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials they are using. children learn through first-hand experiences which involve putting their ideas into practice to develop an awareness and understanding of the possibilities and limitations of different materials. Practitioners encourage children to explore, observe, solve problems, think critically, make decisions and talk about why they have made their decisions as they design and create. Children’s natural creativity is fostered and opportunities for investigation, designing and making are offered daily within our provision, which enables children to learn a great deal about their world.
The impact of our Design and Technology curriculum is in the development of our pupils being able to approach problems creatively and in a range of ways, applying their knowledge from across the curriculum areas independently. The skills and attributes they develop will benefit them beyond school and into adulthood: the ability to use time efficiently, work with others productively, show initiative, independence, resilience and manage risks effectively will ensure well-rounded citizens who will make a difference in the wider world.