Design Technology
The rationale for our Design Technology curriculum is based upon guidance from the DT Association.
'Design Technology is about providing opportunities for students to develop their capacity, combining their designing and making skills with knowledge and understanding in order to create quality products.' DT Association.
Our Intent
At Ursula Taylor we want to provide our children with quality opportunities to be creative, innovative and be able to have a range of opportunities to develop skills, knowledge and understanding of designing and making functional products.
We encourage our children to think creatively and solve problems, be imaginative and then design while thinking of our own and others needs.
Through our 'projects on a page' approach from the DT association, we offer a range of opportunities to develop knowledge and skills within a variety of contexts. We use our topic approach to History / Geography / Science as a stimulus to support projects in DT. For example: Year 4 are learning about Rainforests in Science and Geography and have linked their levers and mechanisms work to creating movable rainforest creatures.
Children at UTS are taught the content of the National Curriculum throughout their time at Ursula Taylor in readiness for their transition at the end of year 6 to Secondary School. Most children will achieve the age related outcomes at the end of each Key Stage.
We intend for out DT Curriculum to be practical, engaging and an opportunity to develop a range of valuable cross curricular skills e.g. Maths, English and Science.
Our Implementation:
Our curriculum provision for Design Technology is based on the cycle of 'Design, Make and Evaluate'.
Through a variety of creative and practical activities, we teach the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in a process of designing, making and evaluating. Products are designed considering purpose and function.
When Designing and Making children are taught to:
Design
- Use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional and appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups.
- Generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional diagrams, pattern pieces and computer aided design.
Make
- Select from and use a wide range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks. (for example: cutting, shaping, joining and finishing, as well as chopping and slicing.) accurately.
- Select from and use a wider range of materials , ingredients and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their functional properties, aesthetic qualities and where appropriate, taste.
Evaluate
- Investigate and analyse a range of existing products.
- Evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work.
- Understand how key events and individuals in Design and Technology have helped shape the world.
As children progress through school they revisit, consolidate and then develop further their expertise, experiencing gradually more complex techniques and skills.
Impact
We aim to ensure that children:
- Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
- Build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skill in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users and critique, evaluate and test their ideas and the work of others.
- Understand and learn some of the principles of nutrition and learn to cook a range of simple dishes. Children will design and make a range of products.
- Children will be taught to refine a product and create a good quality finish.
Children's skills and knowledge are assessed on an ongoing basis by the teachers. This assessment informs children's progress and also determines the next steps in terms of teaching and learning.
We hope that through our engaging and interesting curriculum, that children will enjoy Design Technology and have confidence to be creative and try out their ideas.