Shay Lane Primary School

Design and Technology

Our Intent

At Shay Lane Primary School, we view design and technology to be an inspiring, cooperative and expressive subject.

 

We aim for children to:

  • think independently, solve problems both as individuals and as team members
  • investigate the designed and made world, past and present
  • appreciate the impact of design and technology on daily life and the wider world
  • carry out research into existing products and user needs
  • use analysis, synthesis and critical evaluation
  • become innovative and learn how to take risks
  • solve problems using creativity and imagination
  • use knowledge from a range of other subjects
  • intervene creatively to fundamentally solve challenging obstacles.

We want children to develop personal qualities such as:

  • responsibility and commitment
  • teamwork and negotiation
  • flexibility and perseverance
  • resourcefulness and enterprise
  • organisation and motivation
  • persuasion and leadership

Educators in our school encourage children to use their imagination and creativity to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems in daily life and the wider world, and in a variety of contexts. We intend to inspire children through engaging projects that allow pupils to consider their own and others’ needs, wants and values. The key principles of design and technology are encouraged through other subjects such as English, mathematics, science, computing and art and design to develop this technical knowledge further and apply it where necessary.

The children are provided with opportunities to reflect upon and critically evaluate past and present design and technology, its uses and its effectiveness. The children then become inspired innovators and risk-takers, themselves, and reflect upon and evaluate their own products and inventions to a greater extent.

 

* Policy Document *

 

Our Implementation

Shay Lane Primary School is a proud member of The Design and Technology Association (DATA).

 

Teaching and Learning in KS1 and KS2

We use key elements from the DATA to inform the teaching and learning in our school and have suitably adapted this flexible scheme of learning to meet the needs of our pupils. We have applied elements of the ‘Projects on a Page’ national scheme of work and our own expertise to ensure long, medium and short term planning is progressive and cohesive across the EYFS and all other year groups.

Projects are taught in blocks which allows for deeper learning in which teachers can focus on teaching and developing DT skills, allowing children time to develop their ideas and techniques. ‘Projects on a Page’ allows for more flexibility when delivering a D&T project - in discussion with the children in our school, we decide which products we will design and make, who the products will be for and what the purpose is.  Our adaptations from this scheme of learning have enabled and embedded cross-curricular links and links with wider experiences in our school.

When designing and making, pupils need opportunities to make informed decisions such as selecting materials, components and techniques and deciding what form the products will take, how they will work, what task they will perform and who they are for, as well as some scope to be original with their thinking. Lastly, children should design and make products that are believable, real and meaningful to themselves.

Building on current good practice, each Project Planner includes three types of activity that provide detail on how the programmes of study for design and technology should be taught.

  • Investigative and Evaluative Activities (IEAs) – children learn from a broad range of existing products and find out about D&T in the wider world;
  • Focused Tasks (FTs) – pupils are taught specific technical knowledge, designing skills and making skills;
  • Design, Make and Evaluate Assignment (DMEA) – children create functional products with users and purposes in mind.

Through IEAs and FTs children are equipped with the knowledge, understanding and skills to engage successfully and with increasing independence in a Design, Make and Evaluate Assignment. IEAs and FTs do not have to be followed in sequence; therefore, we dip in and out of these activities to meet the needs of our children.

 

Assessment

Teachers at Shay Lane Primary School strive to ensure pupils have the required knowledge, skills and understanding to be innovative designers. We ensure our teachers have the necessary knowledge and skills to deliver high quality D&T sessions through our progressive curriculum and through bespoke subject CPD.  Class teachers make effective use of assessment to ensure pupils are making expected progress. We use our curriculum ‘masters of’ to inform our summative assessments.

When planning and teaching for, and formatively assessing our pupils, we follow the DATA Essentials to delivering an effective D&T project. These are in place in teachers' planning to ensure children’s learning is genuinely design and technological in nature. They are consistent with the National Curriculum requirements and are applied whenever children are designing and making products.

The D&T Essentials are User; Purpose; Innovation; Authenticity; Functionality and Design Decisions. By incorporating the six D&T Essentials, children should have a clear idea of who they are designing and making products for, considering their needs, wants, interests or preferences. Pupils should know what the products they design and make are for and children should design and make products that function in some way to be successful.

 

EYFS

In the EYFS, the early learning goals for Expressive Arts and Design indicate what children should know, understand and be able to do by the end of the reception year. Shay Lane Primary School ensures the delivery of high-quality D&T experiences and activities, enabling children to ‘safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function’ and ‘use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes’. D&T also makes an important contribution to young children’s learning across the remaining six areas of the EYFS framework, including Understanding the World, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, and Communication and Language. The D&T knowledge, understanding and problem- solving skills feed into whole class teaching and learning though an enabling EY environment.

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KS1 After School Club

Pitta Pizzas!
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Fruit Faces!
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Wraps!
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Gingerbread Biscuits!
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Sewing Club!

KS2 School Visit

We invited a cooking and nutrition specialist to educate the children on healthy eating in an assembly. The children thoroughly enjoyed this special visit and even began discussing concepts of the assembly, as well as making special requests in relation to the Eat Well plate, with our school cooks at dinner time!

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School Gallery

EYFS

In celebration of Pancake Day, we made pancakes for each other and added a variety of toppings!

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Vehicles

 

The EYFS have been creating vehicles! The children designed and made their vehicles with a purpose in mind.

Prior to their creating, our caretaker, Mr Smith, visited the EYFS and shared his knowledge about cars and talked about the vehicles he’s had over the years and vehicle models he’s collected. He made a timeline of old cars and new cars and made a ‘car’ for the children to sit in that was of similar size. Mr Smith then showed the children his remote control cars and they explored how the cars moved and how they worked remotely.

The children also assembled vehicles with moving wheels using construction kits and explored moving vehicles through play. 

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Year 1

Year 1 made a moving picture for someone to play with/retell a story.

Year 2

KS1 made castles for our younger children to use in their play that would fit small figures inside. The children focused on building a structure that was strong and stable. 

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Year 3

Pupils in Year 3 made a gift box for a friend to put a present inside. The children used computer-aided design to design their shell structure. 

Year 4 

Year 4 made illuminated light boxes, inspired by their London topic, with a target audience in mind to light up a room! The children applied their learning of electrical circuits in science to their light boxes and fixed it inside their structure. 

In Year 4, the children made wraps for themselves to eat! We had a special visit from a nutrition specialist, who showed the children how to make wraps themselves. The children add healthy ingredients to their wrap.

Year 5

Year 5 made market stall models! 

Pupil Voice

"Design and technology is where you design products beforehand so you know what you’re going to make and knowing everything you’re using. It's different to art as art is learning how to paint and draw but DT is building, constructing and making a product that has a purpose and is made for someone else."

 

"DT is really important."

 

"You plan how you’re going to make something and if it’s not quite right, you can change your design plan and have another go."

 

Y4: " Last term, we made a light switch work in a circuit; we learnt a lot in science, and put it into a lightbox for anyone to use and it advertised films and lit up a room. Our topic was London so we looked at big film billboards to help us design our product."

 

Y6: " We were learning about WW2 and made a box that was designed to protect a valuable artefact with an alarm system in place. We added the alarm system inside the box and if the light sensor was triggered, the alarm would go off - we even programmed it ourself on the computer! In our Wild West topic, we were also learning about America and the different types of burgers they had. We made burgers with different ingredients in; they were so delicious!"

 

Y1: "We LOVED making moving storybooks and used superheros flying through the air and we cut out the characters and coloured them in. Then added them to a storybook. To make it move we just moved the slider across."

Our Impact

The renewed plans for the DT curriculum will be implemented in all classes from September 2022.  The intended outcomes for each year group are clear from our detailed planning.

We will measure children’s performance in DT against these outcomes as described under ‘implementation’ and report accordingly to governors.

Design Technology will continue to be monitored by the subject leader throughout the year in the form of book monitoring, conversations with pupils, environment walks and looking at outcomes to establish the impact of the teaching taking place. This will inform the Design and Technology subject leader of any further areas for curriculum development, pupil support and/or training requirements for staff.

Children in Foundation Stage are assessed within Expressive Arts and Design, as well as other areas of learning, and their progress is tracked termly. Age related expectation levels are reported to parents at the end of the Nursery and Reception year.

Our Pupils

  • Children have clear enjoyment and confidence in Design and Technology that they then apply to other areas of the curriculum.
  • Pupils have developed the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently
  • Pupils participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.

Pupils gain a firm foundation of knowledge and skills to see them equipped to take on further learning in High School.

Pupils:

  • demonstrate a secure understanding of the three S’s/P’s, how the product would work, and the specific criteria their product must meet to be successful
  • communicate their innovative ideas and plans clearly
  • modify their designs and prototypes in light of their testing and evaluation
  • Apply measurement and use tools and components with increasing accuracy to safely make well-finished products
  • draw effectively upon their scientific understanding and their knowledge of mechanisms, structures, forces or the effect of heat to create and explain how their products work
  • use an increasingly technical vocabulary when talking or writing about what they might change as their work develops.