Our Design and Technology Curriculum statement

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Intent
Design and Technology (DT) is an inspiring, considered and practical subject. It encourages children to learn to think and engage creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team, helping to build lifelong skills that are required for twenty-first century living. At Highweek, we encourage children to use their growth mindset, creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. We aim to, wherever possible, link work to other subjects to create a robust curriculum with meaningful connections and real-life context. The children are also given opportunities to reflect upon and evaluate past and present design, its uses and its effectiveness and are encouraged to become innovators and risk-takers.

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Implementation
Through a variety of creative and practical activities, we teach the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in a spiral process of designing and making. The children design and create products that consider function and purpose and which are relevant to a range of sectors (for example, the home, school, leisure, culture, enterprise, industry and the wider environment).

Children are taught to design, make, evaluate and the technical knowledge they need to be successful and that will support them moving into KS3 and beyond, as well as ignite an interest in designing for a purpose.

Key skills and key knowledge for DT have been mapped across the school to ensure progression and revisiting skills between year groups. The context for the children’s work in DT is also well considered and children learn about real life structures and the purpose of specific examples, as well as developing their skills throughout the programme of study. DT lessons are taught as a block or as a weekly timetabled lesson, depending on what the teacher has decided is most beneficial for the specific outcome.

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Impact

Our Design and Technology curriculum enables and encourages our children to becomes critical thinkers. They look at existing designs to analyse and assess its effectiveness and then they consider ways of redesigning and reconstructing it to improve its overall success for the target audience and their needs. Through DT, our children learn to take risks, become resourceful, innovative, think empathetically and become enterprising individuals. Children learn to be passionate and excited by the designing and making of products including working with, preparing and tasting food. Learning is assessed through the analysis of the pupils’ ability to evaluate, design, make and improve their own work.

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Please click here for DT in KS1

Please click here for DT in KS2

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