DT

Design and Technology Overview

At St Augustine’s, we believe that Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Our lessons provide children the opportunity to work creatively and imaginatively to design and make products that are relevant and solve problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. Lessons enable pupils to learn how to creatively contribute towards and constructively improve the rapidly changing world of technology.

We aim to enable pupils the skills and knowledge needed to contribute to their home, the community and industry, by having a deeper understanding of products. Children will engage in high quality lessons and projects that look in depth at products, systems and develop technical knowledge and thinking skills, including recognition and analysis of need, generation, modelling and planning possible solutions then finishing by evaluation the process.

Our lessons ensure children learn through practical experiences that are relevant to their own and others lives. They foster learning through team building, design analysis, discussion, adapting and evolving ideas, evaluating and applying and building upon technical knowledge enabling our children to become skilled learners.

Early Years

Design and Technology in the early years focus’ on exploring product and materials, developing early ideas and learning how these ideas can be created, adapted and brought to life. These aspects link with the specific area of learning – Expressive arts and design, using media and material and Understanding the World, the world and technology and physical development. Throughout the early years the children have daily opportunities to explore products, designing them and creating the. This enables children to make sense of the ‘made world’ in which they live. By making, changing and modifying things for themselves, children can develop a greater understanding of their world and a understanding of being able to change and modify their environment. We ensure that design and technology enables children to gain knowledge and understanding of their world. We provide the opportunity to design ideas, build structures, involve their imagination and promote willingness for children to change and modify ideas.

Technology is used to put ideas into practice giving the children an awareness of the possibilities and limitations of different materials. We believe it is important for children to experience at first hand the consequences of the decisions they have made, rather than being shown by an adult how to get it ‘right’. We have built an environment that allows purposeful making involving creativity, imagination and fun. Through exploration, children can begin to explore cause and effect, which over time will lead them to questions about how things happen and how they work. The children also learn about living a healthy lifestyle, including eating a balanced diet, exploring food, making healthy snacks such as fruit kebabs, smoothies and pitta pizzas.

Key Stage 1

Children in Year 1 will start deepening their technological understanding with their first enquiry question ’How will your rolling toy move?’ This will allow children to begin to deepen their prior Early Years learning and begin more focused projects, looking at specific areas of design and technology, in this case mechanisms. As children deepen their technical knowledge they are then able to look at the aspects of design and technology, user, purpose, functionality, innovation and authenticity. During each project the children build their skills and knowledge, making purposeful products for a designated audience. They consider who wants the product, how it can be appealing, how it will work effectively, how they want it to look and how they can make it different to what is already available.

The children also further explore food and nutrition, focusing on making for purpose, to a specific criteria. We teach the children the importance of preparing food in a safer and controlled environment and how food can me chosen, made, presented to suit the individual or group specified.

Key Stage 2

As the children develop their technical knowledge when designing and making they move onto more complex aspects of design and technology. In Key Stage 2 the children explore mechanical systems, shell structures, heathy and varied diet, textiles (was the 2D shape to 3D product), frame structures, combining fabric shapes, celebrating culture through food and pulleys, cranks and sliders).

Children will begin to evaluate their own products and explore how current product development has developed over time, impacting todays society and shaping the world they live in. The children apply their understanding to strengthen and reinforce more complex structures.

Within Key Stage 2, children will use primary and secondary sources to support their ideas and designs, discussing the criteria and ensuring their products are innovative, appealing, functional and fit for purpose.

Subject Coverage

Whole School Events

As a school we take part in design and technology weeks to allow the children to focus as a whole school on creating products focusing on specific elements of design and technology. Children across the school share a common theme in their learning and build progressive designing skills whilst focusing on various aspects, building technical knowledge, giving the children the opportunity to express their own ideas and interests. Each Spring the whole school takes part in the national gallery ‘Take One Picture’ project. During this time, all children across the school spend a week designing and making something exciting, purposeful and authentic linked to the painting. It provided a fun and imaginative opportunity to link todays society with aspects of a previous time period.