COLDEAN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Reception

Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2

Throughout the school we teach Design and Technology (D&T) so that our children become problem solvers who can work creatively on a shared project. High-quality D&T lessons give children the knowledge they need and inspire them to think independently, innovatively and develop creative, procedural and technical understanding. High-quality D&T education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and wellbeing of the nation.

It is our intention that pupils become more expert as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating and connecting declarative and procedural computing knowledge.

• Declarative knowledge- this is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used to learn about the content. It consists of facts, rules and principles and the relationships between them. It can be described as ‘knowing that.’
• Procedural knowledge– this is knowledge of methods or processes that can be performed. “It can be described as knowing how". It is through procedural knowledge that children gradually become more expert by thinking like designers.

Our D&T curriculum provides children with opportunities to research, represent their ideas, explore and investigate, develop their ideas, make a product and evaluate their work. Children are exposed to a wide range of media including textiles, food, computer aided design (CAD) and woodwork; through this, children develop their knowledge of materials and how to work with them.

We aim to, wherever possible, link work to other disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art.

Children will design and make a range of products. A good quality finish will be expected in all design and activities made appropriate to the age and ability of the child.

Children learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world.

Our curriculum is sequenced in line with the EYFS Statutory Framework (2021), Development Matters (2021) and the National Curriculum for Design & Technology (2013).

Design and technology knowledge is taught explicitly in D&T lessons so that children know more, remember more and can do more.

Substantive knowledge is organised into four interrelated disciplines designing, making, evaluating and technical knowledge to ensure that pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding are built upon through successive years towards clearly identified year group learning outcomes.

Wherever possible learning in design and technology is linked to overall topics to enable children to add new learning to increasingly complex schemata that demonstrate the inter-relatedness of curriculum content.

To ensure our curriculum is taught to develop cumulatively sufficient knowledge by the end of each Key Stage we follow the stages outlined below:

1.)    Declarative knowledge for each subject is mapped from EYFS to Year 6 to ensure our children learn cumulatively sufficient knowledge by the end of each Key Stage.

2.)    Procedural knowledge as is mapped from EYFS to Year 6 to enable children to apply their knowledge as skills.

3.)    Explicit teaching of vocabulary is central to children’s ability to connect new knowledge with prior learning. Teaching identifies Tier 2 words, high frequency words used across content e.g. evaluate, and Tier 3 words, specific to subject domains e.g. lever

4.)    Spaced retrieval practice, through questioning, quizzes and peer-explanations, further consolidates the transfer of information from working memory to long-term memory. Quizzing etc are primarily learning strategies to improve retrieval practice – the bringing of information to mind.

5.)    The use of knowledge organisers and knowledge notes for some subjects keeps essential information together to guard against split-attention effect. Children are taught to forge connections between their current learning and the ‘big picture’ of subject content.

The Design and Technology Association scheme of work forms the core of our D&T curriculum. This scheme has enabled a strategic sequence of study that builds content and concepts over time, with vocabulary comprehensively structured and thoughtfully sequenced across year groups with progression in knowledge.

Children design products with a purpose in mind and an intended user. New content is linked to prior learning. Children develop their ideas through analysis of existing products using discussion, drawings, plans, CAD and models.

They plan the sequence of making and use their knowledge of materials, tools, marking out, scoring, cutting, shaping, and joining in increasingly complex and accurate ways. Children are taught finishing techniques and expected to apply these in increasingly more successful ways.

Food technology is taught across the school with children developing an understanding of where food comes from, the importance of a varied and healthy diet and how to prepare this.