Design & Technology

Intent – What do we want children to learn?

It is our intention that every pupil, irrelevant of needs, develops such a passion for Design and Technology that they are thinking of creative, imaginative ideas that they want to develop and make in school and at home. We want all our pupils to experience a wide and varied Design Technology Curriculum, which leaves them able to actively participate in the changing technological world, as users, consumers, service makers, designers, innovators or observers. We wish for every pupil to develop their decision-making confidence, take risks and increase their sense of personal worth through the production of quality outcomes.

At Birchwood we know that children learn best when the curriculum is well sequenced to enable revisiting of core knowledge, skills and understanding to deepen conceptual awareness before demanding application across the whole curriculum. Please see the Design and Technology Progression of Skills documents (held in school), which outline how the key skills are developed, revisited, assessed and built upon during Year 1 to Year 6.

Implementation – How are we going to achieve our intent?

At Birchwood we use a variety of teaching and learning styles in D&T lessons. We are using KAPOW to support the teaching and learning of D&T. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding, and we do this through a mixture of whole class teaching and individual, pair or group activities. Teachers draw attention to good examples of work models for the other children, and we encourage the children to evaluate their own work as well as the work of other children.

Each term the children will focus on developing all four areas of D&T (design, make, evaluate and technical knowledge) through cooking and nutrition, textiles, structures, electrical systems and mechanisms. Please see the Design and Technology Progression of Skills documents.

See Food For Life Policy for additional cooking and nutrition progression.

Impact – What will it look like when we have achieved our intent?

There are literally hundreds of ways we can demonstrate the excellent impact our curriculum design has on our pupils. In a nutshell, here are some examples:

• Children in KS1 learn about the Great Fire of London as part of their topic on Real Life Superheroes. They had a visit from a local Fire brigade. The firefighters showed the class how a fire fighter’s job has changed from what was available to put out fires in 1666. They then put out a small fire on the playground to show how a fire can spread along a street of houses (made from cereal boxes). In Design and Technology, the children then researched fire engines and investigated wheels, axles and chassis before designing and then building their own fire engine using recycled materials and wooden wheels and axles.  Then children evaluated their own fire engine and some of their peers highlighting the successes and any areas that should be developed next time they create and build a design from their plans.
• Children in KS2 built a pig using only recycled materials such as plastic milk bottles, bottle tops and plastic tubs. The pig was entered into a Suffolk competition and was on display at the Suffolk Show.
• Year 1-6 completed a cookery and nutrition unit. Each class taste tested food such as Year 5 children taste tested different Bolognese sauce, Year 2 taste tested different healthy protein, dairy and vegetable options. Children then designed and then made healthy food. In Year 6 the class planned and cooked three course meals. There was some amazing dishes cooked such as stuffed pasta, salmon with peppercorn sauce and crumbles.