Design And Technology

Design And Technology Statement Of Intent

At Stillness Infant School we teach Design and Technology as an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Using creativity and imagination, pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.

• The children are taught the school values of creativity, perseverance and independence through the design and make process. They learn how to consider the needs of others and they learn to be resilient in their problem solving strategies. We teach the children to be proud of the products they make and to acknowledge the effort they put into their work.
• We reflect and celebrate our diverse community in our Design and Technology projects, for example learning about breads from different cultures and studying textiles from around the world before weaving.
• The children develop their skills and knowledge in a progressive and sequential way building on what has gone before and enabling them to make links with their learning. For example, the children use ribbons to weave on a large scale in Early Years and in Year 2 they study textiles, learn about warp and weft before designing and weaving their own place mat using wool and string. Our Design and Technology curriculum is adapted to meet the needs of all children including disadvantaged children and children with SEND or EAL, giving them the inspiration see the possibilities of Design and Technology for future employment.
• We teach the children the technical language and vocabulary they need to be able to describe and evaluate their own work and the work of others with increasing fluency and clarity.
• Design and Technology is central to providing the children with broad, rich experiences, inspiring them to be curious and discover their particular talents. They learn to cook and bake, they learn about lunar buggies and textiles, they make puppets and boats. We inspire the children by relating Design and Technology to current events such as the Mars Rover ‘Perseverance’
• We use stories to create contexts for our Design and Technology projects, for example making puppets based on the characters in the stories used in our ‘Go Wild’ topic. In this way, the children see the importance of reading and see books as an inspiration. We use non-fiction texts to reinforce the knowledge we teach, for example books about wheels and cars so that the children see books as a source of information.

Design And Technology Implementation

At Stillness Infant School, we give children the time to fully engage with the process of designing and making.

In our Early Years Foundation Stage, the children are introduced to Design Technology through direct teaching and continuous provision such as junk modelling and weaving on a large scale in both the indoor and outdoor areas, and our environment is carefully developed to invite children to explore and extend their own ideas. In addition, directed Design Technology activities, which are linked to topics and build on children’s prior learning, are delivered. This gives children opportunities to rehearse, consolidate and extend their skills. We teach a wide range of projects to ensure they develop a wide range of Design Technology techniques in basic joining, finishing, mechanisms and food. For example, the children make boats, cars and rockets in their ‘On The Move’ topic. They design chairs and beds for Goldilocks. They are supported to develop the fine motor skills needed to be able to use scissors, glue, tape and other joining and finishing techniques.

In Key Stage 1, children have three Design Technology projects a year linked to their topic. For example, in Year One they design and make a sandwich fit for a Queen’s afternoon tea in their ‘Turrets and Tiaras’ topic. They explore, design and make a model lunar buggy in their ‘Space Race’ topic. The lessons build on each other in a progressive and sequential way so that the children revisit and improve their ability to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products, evaluate their work and deepen their technical knowledge.

Children learn the vocabulary associated with the skills and techniques used for each project. The process of how to evaluate and critique their own work is taught, so that children can express what they would do better next time. Children discuss the work of designers and use the associated vocabulary to describe the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and make links to their own work.

SEND and EAL children are given additional support to ensure that they can achieve the same outcome as their peers. Clear, direct feedback is given whilst children are developing their projects and children are assessed every half term.

Children have rich opportunities to broaden their design experience and cultural capital through numerous trips. Children visit the Science Museum, the Horniman Museum and draw inspiration from a range of real life products such as textiles and breads. Displays show the creative process as well as the final outcome, so that children can see the steps that were involved.