Design & Technology
You can read details of the national curriculum for Design Technology here.
At St Anne’s, design and technology encourages children to be creative, innovative and take risks as they become designers and makers of purposeful products. We ensure our children become inspired and confident problem solvers and embrace challenges with enthusiasm.
We bring our DT teaching to life through practical, exploratory and relevant challenges which build on children’s prior knowledge and skills. The children are encouraged to use knowledge and skills from a range of curriculum areas including RE, English, maths, history, computing, art and science and apply them to a real-life context, ensuring the learning is relevant, meaningful and memorable.
DT is taught predominantly termly throughout the year groups, however cross-curricular links within our Dimensions curriculum enable DT to be explored more frequently through a variety of other subjects.
We strive for our children to become successful:
- planners
- thinkers
- communicators
- active learners
- evaluators
- informed consumers
- potential innovators
The National Curriculum for DT aims to ensure that all pupils:
- develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world
- build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users
- critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others
- understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook
At St Anne’s, we aim for our DT curriculum to install a love for creativity, practicality, critical thinking and provide valuable life skills which enable each and every child to succeed.
Throughout EYFS, DT is developed through continuous provision and fun practical learning. DT is accessible in both our inside and outside classrooms through creativity and construction challenges which are both teacher and child led. We encourage the children to work independently and as part of a team developing and expanding their ideas. We foster the children’s interests and promote natural curiosity enabling children to begin to express and explain their thought processes.
In Key Stage 1, the children build on the knowledge and skills learnt in the EYFS. The children learn to design, make and evaluate a variety of products which are relevant and functional. They use a range of key vocabulary throughout the different stages of the planning, making and evaluating processes and learn how to select appropriate tools and equipment. Children will develop an understanding of where food comes from and prepare simple dishes. They will develop their reflective skills and be more aware of how to make a product appealing for a targeted audience.
Throughout Key Stage 2, the children develop a greater understanding of the process required when designing, making and evaluating and are able to talk through each stage with increasing confidence. They confidently communicate their ideas in a variety of ways, for example, through discussion, sketches, diagrams, prototypes, patterns and computing. We aim for our children to become reflective learners and use their evaluative skills to review their DT learning. We encourage our children to use, apply and extend their DT skills and knowledge into their homes as well as at school through additional teacher challenges. Children understand how key events and individuals in DT have helped shape the world and use this knowledge to influence their designs.
Outdoor Learning
At St Anne’s, we are passionate about outdoor learning. We utilise our outside classroom as much as possible and enjoy outdoor learning weeks and days. The children have opportunities to construct shelters, build fires to cook on, whittle, use natural materials to create useable structures and learn how to use tools appropriately and safely. We aim for all children to be given opportunities to explore, research and apply their skills and knowledge to a greater level and understand how DT shapes our ever-changing world.
“We love extending our learning outside into our outdoor classroom. In Year 6, we made bread rolls and used an open fire to cook them being careful of the heat. We enjoyed working collaboratively constructing an Egyptian Shadoof where we had to make sure we could transport the water without spilling it. We even used natural materials to make a den but we had to ensure it was robust enough otherwise it would’ve fallen down!” - KS2 child
“Being builders in Reception and working as a team is lots of fun. We used the construction to build bridges and worked out how to travel around our outside classroom without touching the floor!” – EYFS child