Design Technology
DT provides students with a wide range of skills and practical opportunities to explore their creativity and connect with the world around them. Solving everyday problems through designing, making and evaluating.
Design and Technology aims to develop transferable skills used across many disciplines in the modern world, both in and out of design fields. It teaches project and time management, teamwork, the importance of collaboration and the importance of failure and commitment. A completed project will offer a sense of achievement, pride, and confidence as well as a unique achievement to set them apart from other students.We intend to build a Design Technology curriculum which is inspiring, rigorous, and practical. We want our children to use creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, using a variety of materials, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. We intend for all children to acquire appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum. We want Design and Technology to prepare our students, to give them the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences they need to be successful in later life.
The subject inspires independence, critical thinking, and creativity..
EYFS
A child’s journey through Dunraven school starts in Reception where they are taught to use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques. Through our reception curriculum, children experiment with colour, design, texture, form and function. Children are given opportunities to represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, thinking about uses and purposes.
KS1
Our KS1 curriculum aims to expose students to a wide range of materials and techniques to build and create an object with a purpose.
The Dunraven KS1 curriculum for design technology aims to ensure that all pupils are taught:
Design :
-
Design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria
-
Generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through talking, drawing and templates
Make :
-
Select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks
-
Select from and use a wide range of materials and components according to their characteristics
Evaluate:
-
Evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria â
Technical knowledge:
-
Build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable
-
Explore and use mechanisms.
KS2
Building on the foundations laid down in KS1, our KS2 curriculum allows students to further develop those skills and techniques with more emphasis on problem solving for real-life and making the projects purposeful.
The Dunraven KS2 curriculum for design technology aims to ensure that all pupils are taught:
Design:
-
Use research and a design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups
-
Generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion and annotated sketches.
Make:
-
Select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks, accurately
-
Select from and use a wider range of materials and components, including construction materials and textiles according to their functional properties and aesthetic qualities
Evaluate :
-
Evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria
Technical knowledge:
-
Apply their understanding of how to strengthen, stiffen and reinforce more complex structures
-
Understand and use mechanical and electrical systems in their products
KS3
Students will learn how to work independently to design and make products to solve everyday problems. Students will learn about the 6Rs and be taught the importance of considering the environment and the effect on the planet that manufacturing materials and products may have.
-
Understand how to work safely and independently with a range of workshop tools including hand tools and CAD/CAM
-
Understand the different stages of the design process and why each stage is important for a high quality outcome
-
Understand the source, and properties of a broad range of materials
-
Designing and making a range of products based around the needs of different end users inspired by different themes
-
Instilling a love of problem solving and creative thinking.
-
Embracing mistakes and developing resilience when encountering challenges
KS4
Students will apply and build on skills learnt at KS3 to design more individual products. Students will be able to analyse, evaluate and test different ideas through building prototypes.
-
Understand the economic, environmental, ethical, and socio-cultural factors when designing for various target markets
-
Understanding different design processes especially the iterative process
-
Developing a wide range of sketching skills and various methods of communicating design ideas
-
Choosing appropriate materials for various projects based on knowledge of different working properties
-
Instilling a love of problem solving, designing products to make activities better in everyday life
-
Learning about a wide range of designers including BAME and LGBTQ+ , taking inspiration from their work .
-
Analysing and evaluating their work and the work of others taking on feedback and modifying their ideas accordingly.
-
Using maths to work our design and make challenges
KS5
Students who would like to complete DT at A-Level are currently taught at Elmgreen.
Curriculum Maps
All Though Curriculum Map
Year 7 Curriculum Year Map
Year 8 Curriculum Year Map
Year 9 Curriculum Year Map
Year 10 Curriculum Year Map
SEND and Inclusion
As in all areas of the curriculum, teachers should deliver ‘quality-first’ teaching and adapt lessons to support children with barriers to learning. On an individual basis, teachers should consider any limitations that a child has in accessing the planned lesson and provide: Adapted tasks and correct adult support Lesson broken down into chunks to support working memory Oral communication, as mentioned above, is the basis of promoting speaking and listening. This is incorporated into the lessons daily, to give all children the ability to express their thoughts. Visual cues are incorporated into each lesson, to create a link between prior learning and the task set. Regular opportunities to reuse/recap key concepts and vocabulary.
Feedback & Assessment of Learning
We have rigorous and regular assessment systems which are used to inform planning. We are conscious of workload and based on evidence our feedback policy is primarily based on in the moment feedback, live marking and whole class feedback.
Assessment includes:
- Termly data drops
- Pupil progress meetings
- Live feedback
- Group intervention
- End of unit assessments
- Editing work, peer assessing and student response
- Regular use of video footage of assessments and classwork to support progress
- Regular moderation
- Quality Assurance
- We triangulate evidence across the school through book looks, learning walks, data analysis, pupil voice, pupil progress meetings and moderation.
Staff professional learning
Regular staff CPD, which is informed by our Excellence Plan and pupil need.
Regular meetings with the DT leaders and staff in local schools to support subject knowledge, development and moderation of work.
Impact
Students will have enjoyment and confidence in Design and Technology that they will then apply to other areas of the curriculum. Through carefully planned and implemented learning projects the pupils develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
