Intent Statement

At South Avenue Primary School, we believe Design Technology is a vital and integral part of the children’s education which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills.

We have designed our Design Technology curriculum with the intent to promote the child’s physical, mental, cultural, moral and spiritual development to become an ambitious, encouraging and resilient young person who has a passion for learning and achieving. The curriculum is designed to: fulfil the National Curriculum Design Technology Programmes of study, to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which develops children’s appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding in various techniques and materials. This is achieved by recognising the child’s prior learning, allow the child to express their individual creativity through observing, recording, opportunities for first-hand experiences and from imagination, whilst developing competency in controlling a variety of materials, tools, develop self-reflection skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers in a meaningful way. Additionally, we believe it enables children to develop curiosity and a natural wonder of the world around them, therefore linking strongly with our school values and to develop life-long skills such as; experimenting and exploring, practicing, perseverance, resilience and evaluating whilst gaining a sense of pride. The focus is in providing opportunities, developing responsibilities and experiences to extend their horizons for later life.

Implement Statement

At South Avenue, these aims are embedded across the whole school through a progressive curriculum which ensures a high-standard of teaching and learning in Design Technology are implemented. Design Technology is taught as part of termly topics, focusing on knowledge and skills in line with the National Curriculum. We ensure that Design Technology enables all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences across the curriculum, where cross-curricular links can be made, guided by the child’s interests and variety of teaching approaches based on the teacher’s judgement. Throughout areas of Design Technology, a range of skills will be taught ensuring that the children are aware of the health and safety issues related to the tasks and guided to follow correct safety procedures.

Delivery shows clear following of the design process where each project follows: research, design, make and evaluate. Clear and appropriate cross-curricular links are identified and developed to underpin learning and enables children a wide variety of opportunities to apply skills in a purposeful context through ‘hands on’ experiences. Additionally, pupils explore the design process by evaluating work and ensuring that it is of the highest quality through peer and self-evaluations.

Children work both independently, to develop ownership over the curriculum through independent study as well as collaboratively by working as a team and supporting each other to solve problems in Design Technology.

The children’s ideas, explorations and creations are displayed in every classroom and celebrate exceptional practice and outstanding three-dimensional creations for all to enjoy.

We feel it is vital to take the views of the children and staff and improve the way the Design Technology is taught across South Avenue, so pupil voice and staff questionnaires are used to develop how it is taught. We value these and use them to identify points of focus for staff CPD training to improve practice and the children’s engagement in Design Technology.

We provide a variety of opportunities for learning within Design Technology to take place inside and outside of the classroom. Educational visits provide new opportunities and experiences to further develop knowledge and understanding gained within the classroom, and continue to create links with the children’s learning through ‘real life’ experiences. Alongside our curriculum provision, we also provide all children with the opportunity to participate in after school clubs that include elements Design Technology. The children are consulted termly about which clubs they would like to be offered. 

Impact Statement

• At South Avenue, our children have a clear enjoyment and confidence in a variety of areas within Design Technology. They have the opportunity to develop skills in a range of specialisms from food technology, textiles and resistant materials. Pupils will learn and develop skills and knowledge that they will be able to be use later in life and into adulthood.
• Our children learn to become critical thinkers and applicators by continually reviewing themselves and others works through exploring products and evaluating work against the design brief. 
• Knowledge organisers are consistently used in design technology. This outlines key vocabulary used within the unit allowing for students to pre-learn vocabulary and develop subject specific language. The knowledge organisers outline previous skills learnt in prior topics and the new skills they will cover in the new topic. This allows students and parents to see a progression of skills.
• Subject monitoring is carried out to inform subject action planning and next steps.
• At the start of every new topic students will reflect of the skills learnt in prior years. This will allow for teachers to see ‘sticky knowledge’ and identify any areas that needs to be revisited. 
• At the end of the topic students will evaluate their products against the skills and knowledge outline in the knowledge organisers and design briefs. 
• For KS2 students some retrieval activities could include for example entrance and exit tickets.