DT
Intent
At Kerr Mackie Primary School, when we teach design and technology, we want our children to be able to look at existing products and use these to help them create their own. The children will be creating specific products for a particular person and with a definite purpose. This allows the children to be creative, use problem-solving skills and evaluate their own, and others, ideas and products. This in turn allows them to be confident at developing ideas, choosing materials and creating products using safe techniques and the skills taught.
Implementation
Design and technology will be a hands on subject where the children will be solving problems using the skills they are taught. At Kerr Mackie we want the children to focus on 6 areas that create a framework for children’s design and technology learning – this ensures that our children are confident in the skills they are using to produce their own products. The 6 areas are: user, purpose, functionality, design decisions, innovation and authenticity. These will be covered over the year using a skills based curriculum. Using this skills based curriculum means that the skills taught in each year group are built on so that all children are exposed to the skills they need to be able to progress in design and technology. These skills cover design, technical knowledge, making, cooking and nutrition and evaluative areas. In each project the children will cover all of these areas developing the skills needed to create an end product that meets a question or specific criteria. We will incorporate construction, textiles, food and nutrition and the use of computers within the phases to ensure that the children cover all aspects and are challenged by the design and technology curriculum.
Impact
Each year the children will have built on the skills they have been taught in the previous year and will have experienced a wide range of projects with different audiences, many within our school’s community. Using challenge, the children will be good at solving problems and using resilience to evaluate their own ideas and products including how to improve these. Using their learning, the children will be able to select and choose appropriate materials and tools to create their products. They will learn many skills that they will use in all areas of their lives, not just in school.
