DT at Wilshere-Dacre

Intent

Our Design and Technology (DT) curriculum’s purpose is to challenge children to be innovative and creative. Through the product design cycle - ideation, creation, and evaluation – we are aiming to develop methodical, systematic approaches to creating concepts and problem solving. With sufficient scaffolding and support our curriculum enables all children to take calculated risks through modelling and testing. Ultimately, we aim to encourage children to be reflective learners who can evaluate their work and the work of others with oracy enhanced by subject-specific vocabulary. It is our intention to further develop our curriculum and build an awareness of the impact of DT on our lives by highlighting the work of designers and makers. By showcasing eminent people in this field, for example Zaha Hadid, we aim to encourage children to identify DT-related careers in which they could see themselves in the future.

Implementation

DT is a crucial part of school life as it teaches key life skills for our children. These include practical, hands-on functions like paring, chopping, and sawing as well as problem-solving, logical thinking and self-evaluation. Each project is underpinned by the design process: design, make and evaluate, with this approach being embedded as the scaffold for thinking creatively more widely.

Our curriculum is adapted for our context and the needs of our children taking into account additional scaffolds required for learners as well as challenge for those who excel in the subject.

Our DT curriculum comprises:

• Wide-ranging, age-appropriate schemes of learning which allows for progression across year groups in all areas of DT (textiles, mechanisms, structures, food and electrical systems).

• Well planned and resourced projects providing children with a hands-on and enriching experiences.

• A range of skills being taught ensuring that children are aware of health and safety issues related to the tasks undertaken.

• Teacher-led planning supported by the subject leader to provide as much autonomy as possible while maintaining the essential learning elements required for each project. Teacher input and feedback on projects is proactively sought to ensure the curriculum remains relevant and practical to implement.

• Pupils being introduced to specific designers and makers in order to increase appreciation of design building cultural capital and awareness of design as an aesthetic process.

Informally, DT skills are further developed across the school in a wide range of contexts including gardening and growing, cooking and food preparation relevant to festivals and celebrations, whole school competitions responding to key events in the school calendar, for example World Book Day.

Impact

Assessment of the impact of our curriculum is in development. To support our intention to develop reflective, articulate learners, a standardised self-assessment evaluation has been developed for children. These are age-appropriate for lower and upper school children, requiring more detailed and specific reflection from older children. Pupil voice and teacher feedback will also shape future developments to the curriculum balanced against available resources, equipment and time available.