Design Technology Curriculum Statement

Design and Technology (DT) is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Design and Technology encourages children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team.

Intent

At Healey Junior, Infant and Nursery School, we encourage children to use their creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. We aim to, wherever possible, link work to other disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. 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.

In line with the National Curriculum: Design and Technology programmes of study: Key stages 1 and 2, we aim to plan inspiring and enriching learning specifically for a purpose by:

1. Designing purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria.

2. Select from and use a wide range of materials and components.

3. Explore and evaluate a range of existing products.

4. Build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable.

Implementation

Design and Technology taught here ensures pupils learn through a variety of creative and practical activities. We believe knowledge, understanding and skills are needed to engage children in an iterative process of designing and making. We encourage children through setting family homework to work creatively with their families in order to learn new skills, apply and build on knowledge learnt through school-based learning.

Impact

Through ensuring all children in our school are educated by developing creativeness, technical and practical expertise, it enables them to perform everyday tasks confidently. We embed this through our curriculum maps specifically planning for a purpose within Design and Technology. We achieve this by thriving to give every opportunity to solve real life problems and to consider alternative materials specific to a particular audience. At the end of each unit, we encourage children to be reflective on their designs. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world. High-quality design and technology education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of the nation.

Design & Technology in the Early Years:
 

Design and Technology sits very prominently within the areas of understanding of the world and expressive arts and design. From an early age, the children at Healey learn to develop and make sense of their physical world through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about technology. All our learning opportunities embed each child’s interests and aim to build upon these with exciting and enjoyable learning experiences.

The Curriculum Leader for Design & Technology is Mrs N Hussain.