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

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“Together, we believe, achieve and enjoy”

Through our vision, we serve our community by providing an inclusive, happy, secure and caring Christian environment where all are valued and respected. In our DT curriculum, we promote security by explicitly teaching safety skills in all units of work. We believe that God loves all his children unconditionally and values the uniqueness of the individual and recognise the diversity and range of contributions that each child can make. We are conscious of sustainability within our DT curriculum and ensure that the materials used are reused or recyclable. We understand that children must be aware of their contributions now and in the future. Our Food and Nutrition curriculum promotes diversity as children appreciate foods from a range of cultures.

Following the Church of England's Vision for Education 'Life in all its fullness' John 10:10, we provide a high-quality education within a creative, stimulating, encouraging and mutually supportive environment where children are enabled to develop the skills they require to become successful in Design and Technology.

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Our five Crown Principles drive our Design & Technology curriculum.

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Challenge

Through the ‘challenge’ curriculum driver we want our children relish challenges that being a designer can bring: to follow the design, make, evaluate process towards a final outcome/product, to use creativity and imagination, to make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.

Resilience

Through the ‘resilience’ curriculum driver, we encourage children to take risks, become resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens within in DT curriculum. Children are encouraged to ‘make mistakes’ during the design, make, evaluate process and learn from them.

Opportunities

Through ‘opportunities’, we raise aspirations to broaden our children’s horizons – opening their eyes to the myriad careers they might pursue. Through careful planning, visitors attend school to inform children of their careers linked to technology. We provide tangible role models to raise our pupils’ aspirations to inspire them to work even harder to be the best that they can be. We give children real life design tasks and scenarios in DT. We want our pupils to have a clear understanding of the link between achieving well and having goals for the future.

Wellbeing

 At Queen’s Park, we understand that happiness is linked to personal growth, health and development. We ensure our children are happy, healthy individuals. In DT, we ensure there is a huge emphasis on keeping safe when using tools and equipment. In Food & Nutrition, food handling and hygiene is taught before the children ‘make’. Healthy diets and lifestyles are embedded within the curriculum planning. With ‘wellbeing’ as a curriculum driver, we give children the confidence to thrive in a diverse, global society and be respectful citizens with British and Christian Values at the core.

kNowledge

Through the ‘kNowledge’ curriculum driver, we encourage our children to be resourceful learners. It is uniquely challenging and coherent to our children. The knowledge imparted in DT is crafted by our curriculum leader and DT subject leader to ensure that all pupils achieve secure subjective and disciplinary knowledge in DT. We ensure there is a scheme of knowledge built within our DT curriculum and there are explicit links with other subjects (STEM) All our teachers teach with the aim to ensure pupils have sufficient knowledge to progress through primary school and beyond.

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Being a designer means that disciplinary and substantive knowledge complement each other harmoniously. Design and Technology disciplines such as textiles, building structures etc are all given the same importance within our curriculum.

Through disciplinary literacy, all children read like designer: reading design briefs, recipes, and quality non-fiction texts to support their DT knowledge and understanding.

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DT is taught three times throughout the year (with the exception of Year 6). See Long Term Plan document on website.

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Our progression documents have been created by the Curriculum Leader and DT Subject Leader to ensure clear progress in the disciplines of Design & Technology we focus on at Queen’s Park: Structures and Mechanisms, Food and Nutrition, Electrical Components and Textiles.

The progression documents show key knowledge (substantive knowledge), key vocabulary and key skills (disciplinary knowledge) and assessment outcomes from EYFS – Year 6.

Below is our progression document for textiles.

 

 

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Vocabulary is V.I.T.A.L in Design & Technology

Valued

We value vocabulary in Design & Technology and in everything we do.

Identified

Design & Technology vocabulary is identified by the DT subject leader and is explicitly planned for.

Taught

Vocabulary is explicitly taught in every lesson. Our Crown Planners are used as a teaching tool for key DT vocabulary and the DT medium term plans include additional vocabulary to be taught.

Applied

Once vocabulary is taught, it is applied. Children apply their vocabulary in their assessment outcomes in DT.

Learned

Vocabulary is revisited and relearned. Vocabulary sticks in the children’s long-term memory. Lesson by lesson, year by year, children revisit and relearn key DT vocabulary.

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Through an ‘explosion of experiences’, our youngest designers are exposed to the foundations of their DT learning. Carefully planned DT knowledge, skills and experiences are provided for our children. High quality books, stories and rhymes are the beating heart of our DT curriculum in EYFS. DT vocabulary is planned for. Staff are role models in demonstrating DT vocabulary and this is further enhanced in our excellent provision. The foundations of DT learning in EYFS is linked to Year 1 and beyond.

Year 1 to Year 6

Year on year, children will build upon their DT knowledge, skills and vocabulary. The curriculum leader and DT subject leader have created a meaningful, sequential learning journey through all strands of DT. Careful curriculum thinking and planning ensures that our children have the subject knowledge and components embedded in their long-term memories. Reading is the beating heart of our curriculum. We have made links with quality texts to further embed key knowledge and vocabulary.

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Pedagogy

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Both our staff and children are enthusiastic about DT. Through ongoing CPD, we strive to ensure our teachers have expert knowledge of the Design & Technology they teach. Our pedagogy is firmly based upon our curriculum intent of embedding concepts into long-term memory so that they are able to be recalled, to ensure substantive and disciplinary knowledge and skills can be applied fluently.

Our ‘Queen’s Park Quality First Teaching’ model ensures that lessons are effectively sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and towards defined end points.

We firmly believe that all children should have full access, including those with additional needs, to our DT curriculum therefore lessons are scaffolded where appropriate in order to meet the needs of all our children

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The sequence of lessons across Design & Technology follows the same structure:

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Each lesson, within the sequence, follows the structure so prior knowledge is constantly revisited and transferred to long term memory.

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Our Crown Planners support our children with vocabulary and key knowledge for each unit of work. They enhance children’s understanding of key concepts, present information clearly and promote appropriate discussion.

 

 

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We understand that we may not see the true impact of our DT curriculum on our children as our DT curriculum is just the beginning of a lifetime of learning.

Our well-constructed and well-taught DT curriculum leads to great outcomes. Our results are a reflection of what our children have learnt. At Queen’s Park, our philosophy is that broad and balanced leads to great outcomes and meeting end points at the end of each key stage. National assessments are useful indicators of the outcomes our children achieve.

We ensure all groups of children are given the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We strive to ensure that our children are equipped with the skills (through a growth mindset approach) to fluently be able to retrieve key facts from their semantic memory.

The quality of our children’s work, at every stage, is of a high standard. All learning is built towards an end point and at each stage of their education, we prepare our children for the next stage.

We ensure all our children read to a stage appropriate level and fluency. Through disciplinary literacy in DT lessons.

The impact of Queen’s Park DT curriculum is measured through the following:

  • Assessment at the end of each unit of work
  • Vocabulary and knowledge are assessed at the end of each lesson and at the end of each sequence
  • Pupil voice
  • Progress evident in children’s books and record of experiences
  • Seeking views of parents where appropriate

 

 

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