Vision statement & intent
At Sunnybrow Primary School, we strive to ensure that our pupils are empowered to exceed in the world beyond the boundaries of Sunnybrow village. Design and Technology prepares children to participate in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world and to develop a curiosity and interest within it. 
We intend to provide a curriculum which inspires pupils to be innovative and creative thinkers, who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation, and evaluation. Our whole-school curriculum is based around the principle ‘ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things’. We intend to introduce our children to inspirational designers, architects, inventors and chefs, so they have positive role models to aspire to. We want pupils to develop the confidence to take risks, through drafting design concepts, modelling, and testing and to be reflective learners who evaluate their work and the work of others. We aim to build an awareness of the impact of design and technology on our lives and encourage pupils to become resourceful, enterprising citizens who will have the skills to contribute to future design advancements.
Our Intention for Design and Technology at Sunnybrow is:
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To create an interest and enthusiasm for designing and making for children of all abilities and develop these skills.
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To develop children’s confidence and skills in using and selecting a range of tools and materials safely.
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To develop their knowledge and understanding and combine these with their design and making skills in order to develop their capability in creating high quality products.
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To reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses, and its impact.
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To help children develop an ability to criticise constructively and evaluate their own products and those of others.
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To apply the principles of nutrition, basic hygiene and learn how to cook.
Implementation
We have chosen to follow Kapow’s Design & Technology scheme for EYFS, KS1 & KS2 to ensure all children at Sunnybrow Primary School receive a consistently high quality of teaching and learning. We can ensure that all teachers, irrespective of their own personal skill or confidence levels can deliver quality lessons.
The Scheme of Work meets the requirements for the National Curriculum for Design and Technology, and enables our teachers to deliver creative, inspiring and engaging lessons. There is some variation in the order of topics to ensure that they work best of our school and children. We also teach the ‘Digital World’ element of the D&T National Curriculum through our Computing Curriculum offer. The scheme is a spiral curriculum and provides for progression in skills and knowledge, with key concepts being revisited again and again. The curriculum content covers the following areas:
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Cooking and Nutrition,
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Mechanisms,
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Structures,
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Textiles,
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Electrical Systems
The four strands of the Design and Technology Curriculum (Design, Make, Evaluate and Technical Knowledge) run through each unit and the fifth strand, Cooking and Nutrition is a standalone unit each year. Where possible, links are made with other curriculum subjects, as these will often lend ‘purpose’ and ‘user’ for the products which pupils will design and make. Each stage of the design process is underpinned by technical knowledge which encompasses the contextual, historical, and technical understanding required for each strand. Cooking and nutrition has a separate section, with a focus on specific principles, skills and techniques in food, including where food comes from, diet and seasonality.
Design & Technology Planning Documents
Design & Technology is in a block of lessons. We made this decision after trailing teaching weekly and fortnightly lessons but we found that:
- Subject delivery was being hindered by the fact that time was having to be factored in for setting up and packing away activities. As a result of this, 60 minute sessions were often in effect no longer than 50 minutes. This meant that the planning for 60 minutes of learning was not always being consistently delivered and the curriculum for DT was sometimes not fully completed. This resulted in some outcomes being of a lower standard than we would have desired.
- Children found that just as they were beginning to use and apply new knowledge, skills and understanding,
they were having to pack up and transfer their thinking and effort to a new curriculum area. This resulted in many consecutive sessions having to recap on what the children had learned the previous week. This slowed the pace of progress for the children and often made learning feel disjointed. - Resourcing was often a challenge for teachers when having to juggle four or five different curriculum subjects in one day. It meant that often breaks and lunchtimes were spent setting up resources for the next session. This was felt to have a negative impact on staff workload and well-being.
Pupils respond to design briefs and scenarios that require consideration of the needs of others. They will complete focused tasks to acquire, improve and deepen their knowledge and understanding of materials and components, structures, mechanisms and control systems, food and textiles.
In each unit of learning, ‘key concepts’ are identified and shared with the children. We then use cumulative quizzing questions over the course of the topic to ensure children are regularly revisiting and retrieving prior learning. It also allows us to check pupil understanding to make sure that no misconceptions have formed are being retained. We also revisit key concepts over longer periods of time using a our ‘daily 5’ questions, where we randomly test ‘sticky knowledge’ at the end of each day.
Impact
Our design technology curriculum is of high quality, encouraging pupil problem solving and critical thinking. Progression of skills and understanding is clearly planned for. Discrete teaching of specific design technology terminology is planned using the progression of skills map and incorporated into units of work to ensure that all pupils are able to articulate well-developed responses to design briefs.
The impact of our DT curriculum can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. We gather a triangualtion of evidence via learning walks, book and planning scrutiny and pupil voice. In each lesson, there are opportunities to assess pupils against the learning objectives. Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and knowledge catcher which can be used at the start and/ or end of the unit.
The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Design and technology scheme of work
is that children will:
➔ Understand the functional and aesthetic properties of a range of materials and resources.
➔ Understand how to use and combine tools to carry out different processes for shaping,
decorating, and manufacturing products.
➔ Build and apply a repertoire of skills, knowledge and understanding to produce high
quality, innovative outcomes, including models, prototypes, CAD, and products to fulfil
the needs of users, clients, and scenarios.
➔ Understand and apply the principles of healthy eating, diets, and recipes, including key
processes, food groups and cooking equipment.
➔ Have an appreciation for key individuals, inventions, and events in history and of today
that impact our world.
➔ Recognise where our decisions can impact the wider world in terms of community, social
and environmental issues.
➔ Self-evaluate and reflect on learning at different stages and identify areas to improve.
➔ Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Design
and technology.
➔ Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for
Computing
At the end of each academic year, children will be assessed against the end-of-year expectations for their year group as either met, working at a greater depth or working towards.
