Intent

At Farsley Springbank Primary School we intend to plan and deliver a Design and Technology curriculum that ignites creativity and inspires children to use their imagination and innovation to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems.  In each Design and Technology project, our children are presented with a design brief that challenges them to consider the needs of the user and the purpose of the product, problem solve within different contexts and draw upon knowledge and skills acquired in previous learning and from different areas of the curriculum such as mathematics, science, computing and art so that they can make informed design decisions.

The Design and Technology curriculum has been carefully designed so that it offers the children opportunities to build on prior knowledge and exercise practical skills in order to learn how to take risks and become resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens.

We think it is highly important to teach our children about past and current designers who have helped shape our society. This gives the children a deeper understanding of the skills and traits required to be a successful designer and aspiration for future careers in the Design and Technology field.

As a school and in accordance with the National Curriculum’s expectations, we aim to ensure that all pupils:

• 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

Implementation

Our Design and Technology curriculum offers our children the opportunity to apply their design skills to solve real and relevant problems through interesting topics. Each year group has a topic every term, that builds upon prior knowledge and skills. A foundation of D&T skills are taught in EYFS and are built on throughout the key stages to ensure new skills and knowledge is delivered and prior learning is retrieved and built upon. The Design and Technology units have been developed with the support of ‘Projects on a Page’ from the Design and Technology Association. Through these units, we have ensured that strands of the D&T curriculum are covered in each key stage so that skills and knowledge are built upon and revisited. We have created units of learning that focus on technical knowledge: structures, mechanical systems, textiles, electrical systems, food and the use computing and programming within designs. Each topic allows for creative and practical activities that encourage children to engage in the design, make and evaluation process which promote iterative thinking and resilience when design ideas don’t go to plan.

Design and Technology long term plan

Design and Technology learning journeys

Here are some examples of our Design and Technology learning journeys.