Design and Technology (DT)

Intent

At Durrington Infant School we aim to provide children with a DT education that is relevant in our rapidly changing world.  We want to encourage our children to become problem solvers who can work creatively on a shared project. We believe that high-quality DT lessons will inspire children to think independently, innovatively and develop creative, procedural and technical understanding. Our DT curriculum provides children with opportunities to research, represent their ideas; explore and investigate; develop their ideas; make a product and evaluate their work. Children will be exposed to a wide range of media including textiles and food. Through this, children will develop their skills, vocabulary and resilience.

Implementation

We have a clear and comprehensive scheme of work in line with the National Curriculum.  Whilst the EYFS and National Curriculum forms the foundation of our curriculum, we make sure that children learn additional skills, knowledge and understanding and enhance our curriculum as and when necessary. Children have access to key knowledge, language and meanings to understand Design Technology and to use these skills across the curriculum. In Design Technology children are asked to solve problems and develop their learning independently. This allows the children to have more ownership over their curriculum and lead their own learning in Design Technology. English, Maths and ICT skills are taught during discrete lessons but are revisited in Design Technology so children can apply and embed the skills they have learnt in a purposeful context.

Our DT Curriculum is developing to provide well thought out lessons and topics that demonstrate progression. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods: reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes; pupil discussions about their learning, which includes discussion of their thoughts, ideas, processing and evaluations of work. As designers, children will develop skills and attributes they can use beyond school and into adulthood.

Impact

Assessing a child’s performance is a continuous process carried out over their time at Durrington Infant School and our assessing methods include the following as appropriate:-

1. Looking at a child’s recorded work i.e. model, photographs, written work.
2. Individual discussion.
3. Listening to the children’s ideas as they discuss between themselves.
4. Group discussions in both planning and reporting back sessions.
5. Observing the children’s skills in Design and Technology.
6. Record the progress that children make by assessing the children's work against the learning objectives for their lessons. At the end of a unit of work, teachers make a judgement against the Key Learning Skills.