Design & Technology

Design and Technology prepares pupils to participate in tomorrow’s rapidly changing technologies. Children are taught to:

• look at products to see how they work and how they are used, and ask the views of the people who use them
• practise practical skills and tasks, such as joining, fixing and connecting
•  design and create their own products, using what they have learned .

Children are shown how to work safely using a variety of materials and tools. Learning is through practical activities and involves much collaboration and problem solving.

Design and Technology gives children the skills and abilities to engage positively with the designed and made world, and to harness the benefits of technology.  They learn how products and systems are designed and manufactured, how to be innovative and to make creative use of a variety of resources including digital technologies, to improve the world around them.

We encourage children to become independent, creative problem-solvers and thinkers as individuals and as part of a team - making positive changes to their quality of life. We enable them to identify needs and opportunities and to respond to them by developing a range of ideas and by making products and systems. Through the study of Design and Technology, children combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, as well as functions and industrial practices. This allows them to reflect on and evaluate present and past Design and Technology, its uses and its impacts – it helps all children to become astute and informed future consumers and potential innovators.

Design and Technology is taught in all year groups through at least one project per term, including food technology. Projects are cross-curricular, linking to the overall termly theme to provide context and purpose.  Children are helped to develop the skills that enable them to think creatively and imaginatively to design, make and evaluate products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts. Food technology is implemented across the curriculum with children developing an understanding of where food comes from, the importance of a varied and healthy diet and how to prepare this.