Design and Technology

Intent

We want children to be able to understand the importance of design and how it is used in everyday life. We want children to be able to create designs and we do this by providing high quality models and good teaching. 

Design and technology units are well sequenced and ensure they cover the key design skills and technical knowledge. Children will be encouraged to design, make and evaluate. These skills increase as children go through the school. We want children to develop their imagination, problem solving skills and creativity within a variety of contexts. They will use other areas of the curriculum to support them with this including maths, science, computing and art. We want children to make high quality designs that are useable and therefore they need to understand the importance of taking time and care to produce them.

Children learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens.

Children are given lots of opportunities to critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and comment on the work of others. 

Children will also learn how to have a healthy life style and understand the importance of nutrition, healthy eating and exercise. Children will learn key skills for making and cooking meals. 

Implementation

Design and Technology is taught every other half term. This to allow children to work on the topic in depth.

It is imperative that children have a context of making something for someone and for a purpose. 

Children will be taught key vocabulary to help support them with their learning and understanding of the topic. 

Children will be given plenty of opportunities to design, make and evaluate their work making suggestions for how they can make improvements. Children will research and investigate designs before they make something. They will communicate their ideas through discussion, sketches, plans, prototypes, patterns and models. They will learn how to use a range of tools and ensure they are using the right tool for the right job. 

 Impact

At Edgware Primary, strong coverage of Design and Technology means children leave us as confident, creative problem-solvers who can design, make and evaluate products with purpose. Through securing key knowledge and skills across the different aspects of design, make, evaluate, technical knowledge and cooking and nutrition, pupils grow more independent and resilient, learning through trial, refinement and improvement. Children grow in confidence in knowing the purpose of design, why it is important and what makes it effective for different products. They also develop the vocabulary to explain and justify their design choices, drawing on links from other subjects. This equips Edgware pupils with practical, transferable skills and a growing sense of what they can create and achieve, both in school and beyond.