What Is Our Vision?
At St Michael & All Angels, we aim to provide high quality design and technology sessions which prepare our children to develop their creativity and imagination and apply this in the development of products which solve real-world problems. through this process our children will become independent problem solvers who are able to draw on a range of disciplines such as maths, science, computing and art to overcome obstacles and problems in the future.
It is our intention for children to become creative problem solvers both as individuals and as part of a team. Working together and independently they will identify opportunities where they can respond by developing ideas and eventually making products and systems to solve a problem.
Through the study of design and technology children will learn a range of practical skills and be able to apply these in different situations with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues as well as the function and purpose of the product.
Our Approach
We use units from the Kapow programme to facilitate our teaching of Design & Technology. This programme is designed for both specialist and non-specialist and enables the delivery of high quality, sequenced lessons which build on the children's knowledge as they progress through school. We alternate our Design Technology curriculum each half term with Art ensuring sufficent time can be dedicated to the development of skills and techniques the childrne will use in their projects. Design Technology may also feature in other subjects through cross curricula links, however this is where specific teaching will take place.
Each class will have a clearly structured design and technology project to follow which will cover either construction, textiles or food and drink. The project will focus on the process of design with children carrying out market research into what would work for their product and what people want, designing and creating a product based on this research and throughout the process evaluating their work.
As with other areas children will have a knowledge organiser which sets out key information about the artists, their style and any subject-specific vocabulary which has been identified.
We have ensured that while design and technology is the focus for the Summer term there are also other opportunities for children to apply these skills, including enterprise weeks where children design and sell a product at the Christmas Fayre.
Curriculum Impact
The impact of our Design and Technology curriculum will be measured in our children's ability to apply the skills they are taught to research, design, make and evaluate a product. We will be able to observe how their understanding of design evolves over a Key Stage and how their understanding of the language and skills involved in the design process improve in this time.
We will measure the impact of design and technology through:
- pupil’s work, especially over time as they gain skills and knowledge
- pupil voice, talking to them about what they know
- lesson observations, looking at how well children perform
In our design and technology lessons some of the things you will see are:
- Children talking to each other about their work and sharing ideas
- Creativity, independence, judgement and self-reflection
- Curiosity and wonder about past and present designs
- High levels of fascination and energy towards their work
- Risk taking and engaging in new experiences whilst learning through trial and error
- Persistence, resilience, challenge and a belief that more effort or a different approach will pay off
- Satisfaction and pride over accomplishments and not just end products