DT
Subject Leader- Alice Walker
How do we teach Design & Technology
Design and technology gives children the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge and understanding of designing and making functional products. We feel it is vital to nurture creativity and innovation through design, and by exploring the designed and made world in which we all live and work.
At Travis St Lawrence CE Primary School, we follow the National Curriculum, which includes Design and Technology as a compulsory subject at Key Stages 1 and 2, with statutory Programmes of Study. To implement the national curriculum we Kapow as a scheme of learning. The scheme is structured to transform pupils into innovative, resilient thinkers by breaking the learning down into four core strands and six key technical areas using a spiral curriculum model.
Design and Technology at Travis St Lawrence CE Primary School:
Design and Technology education involves two important elements – learning about the designed and made world and how things work, and learning to design and make functional products for particular purposes and users.
Children acquire and apply knowledge and understanding of materials and components, mechanisms and control systems, structures, existing products, quality and health and safety.
The skills learned in D&T also help with learning across the curriculum. Knowledge about the properties of materials helps in science and the practice of measuring accurately helps in maths. These skills help in computing through the children’s use of computer control and, naturally, in art and design.
Design and Technology education helps develop children’s skills through collaborative working and problem-solving, and knowledge in design, materials, structures, mechanisms and electrical control. They are encouraged to be creative and innovative, and are actively encouraged to think about important issues such as sustainability and enterprise.
The National curriculum organises the Design and technology attainment targets under four subheadings: Design, Make, Evaluate, and Technical knowledge. We have taken these subheadings to be our Kapow Primary strands:
• Design
• Make
• Evaluate
• Technical knowledge
Cooking and nutrition are given a particular focus in the National curriculum and we have made this one of our six key areas that pupils revisit throughout their time in primary school:
• Cooking and nutrition
• Mechanisms/ Mechanical systems
• Structures
• Textiles
• Electrical systems (KS2 only)
• Digital world (KS2 only)
Kapow Primary’s Design and technology scheme has a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these strands and key areas across each year group.
Why is D&T important at Travis St Lawrence?
Design and Technology is about providing opportunities for children to develop their capability. By combining their design and making skills with knowledge and understanding they learn to create quality products.
D&T is often one of a child’s favourite subjects. Children like making decisions for themselves and doing practical work. They love creating products they can see, touch – and even taste – for themselves. They feel proud to have done so.
D&T brings learning to life. It is a motivating context for discovering literacy, mathematics, science, art, PSHE and ICT. Primary Design and Technology also provides a firm basis for later learning in the subject and a platform for developing skills in literacy and numeracy.
We ensure that our Design technology (DT) curriculum fully supports the National Curriculum for DT.
Design and Technology Programmes of Study: Key Stages 1 and 2
