Design & Technology

In Design & Technology (DT), we learn how to design, make and evaluate real problems.

Design & Technology at Burpham 

At Burpham Primary school, we are committed to providing all children with purposeful learning opportunities to engage in Design and Technology. We believe Design and Technology is about designing and making products for a specific need or purpose. It involves children making discoveries about the world we live in and developing a wide range of skills through the designing, making and evaluating process. Design and Technology helps children learn vital skills such as; how to think through problems creatively, how to organise themselves, how to work with knowledge and how to use practical skills to bring about change. Our focus is on design, textiles, mechanisms, structures and food technology.

Intent

• Develop a love of the subject and build cross curricular links
• 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
• Learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens
• Teach a rich, balanced and progressive curriculum using D&T to reason, problem solve and develop fluent conceptual understanding in each area
• Allow children to develop the power of resilience and perseverance when faced with challenges
• Every child believes they can make progress and achieve in D&T
• Engage all children

Implementation

• Sketching and evaluating skills are used to evaluate current products prior to the design process
• Time is given to practice practical skills before applying these to the final product
• Teachers model skills to pupils
• Health and safety are an essential component of all practical tasks
• Children critique their own and other’s work during and at the end of a project
• Embed progression of skills in all aspects of D&T by using the D&T Association Projects on a Page to support planning and implementation
• Provide an intelligent curriculum whereby challenges gradually increase in difficulty but at a pace where all can access
• Implement a sequential curriculum with opportunities for children to build on prior learning and skills
• We follow the National Curriculum
• Planning is supported by memberships to the D&T association and is either taught in blocks of D&T days or as a series of lessons over a course of weeks

Impact

• Children enjoy D&T at Burpham
• Children have a “can do” attitude to D&T at Burpham
• Achievement is assessed by teachers during and at the end of each topic and monitored by the D&T subject leader
• Children take risks and are not afraid to tackle challenging projects
• Children choose the equipment they need to help them to learn along with the strategies they think are best suited to each problem
• Work is kept either in topic books or separate D&T project booklets made specifically for each topic and show the skills and thinking being taught/developed
• Photographic evidence is also used to show the process and finished product

Design & Technology curriculum overview

The National Curriculum for D&T aims to ensure that all children:

• 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

Here at Burpham, we are members of the D&T Association and use this high quality resource to support the delivery of all aspects of our D&T from Reception to Y6.

Supporting your child with Design & Technology

Here are some links to some useful links and STEM projects to explore at home

https://www.stem.org.uk/primary/resources/collections/home-learning-support  -lots of super STEM projects to try out at home

https://www.imeche.org/careers-education/stem-at-home -Institute of Mechanical Engineers STEM activities at home

Have a look at these websites for ideas to try at home:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/topics/c99ezxv84rpt  Watch 'I want to design' for ideas and inspiration

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks2-design-and-technology/zvb8hbk?scrlybrkr=095de0dd Lots of great clips and shows including 'Dengineers -how would you design your ideal den?

http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/ - Lots of Food Technology information and recipes

https://www.lego.com/en-gb/themes/letsbuildtogether/365-activities - Links to some awesome Lego building