DT

Design Technology Curriculum Rationale

At Coleridge we are designers and technologists! We want our children to love design technology. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be architects, graphic designers, chefs or carpenters. The design technology curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their design and technology capital. We want our children to remember their DT lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the DT opportunities they are presented with!

Curriculum Intent

The design technology curriculum promotes curiosity and a love and thirst for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our children to become independent and resilient – like all curriculum areas.

We want to equip them with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the design technology National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

We want our children to use the vibrancy of our local context to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, co-operate with one another and appreciate what they have. We achieve this by providing a strong SMSC curriculum, with British Values and our core values placed at the heart of everything we do. This often feeds into the design technology curriculum where we will ensure that our DT sessions are the focus of an end outcome. For example, we use our cooking skills to prepare dishes for our Eid Festival and we use our textile skills to make items to sell at our Christmas Market.

We enrich their time in our school with memorable, unforgettable experiences and provide opportunities which are normally out of reach – this heightens their interests and passions. We firmly believe that it is not just about what happens in the classroom, it is about the added value we offer to really inspire our children.

Curriculum Implementation

In September 2020, a complete audit of the design technology curriculum was conducted. On the back of the findings from this audit, the design technology curriculum has been carefully built and the learning opportunities and assessment milestones for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills.

Design technology subject specific characteristics, which we expect the children to demonstrate, have been developed and shared with all stakeholders. These characteristics underpin all work in DT and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils. These characteristics are:

• Significant levels of originality and the willingness to take creative risks to produce innovative ideas and prototypes.
• An excellent attitude to learning and independent working and passion for the subject and knowledge of, up-to-date technological innovations in materials, products and systems.
• The ability to use time efficiently and work constructively and productively with others.
• The ability to carry out thorough research, show initiative and ask questions to develop an exceptionally detailed knowledge of users’ needs.
• The ability to act as responsible designers and makers, working ethically, using finite materials carefully and working safely.
• A thorough knowledge of which tools, equipment and materials to use to make their products.
• The ability to apply mathematical knowledge.
• The ability to manage risks exceptionally well to manufacture products safely and hygienically.

We empower our staff to organise their own year group curriculums under the guidance of our subject leaders. Teachers are best placed to make these judgements. Staff develop year group specific long-term curriculum maps which feed into our end outcomes which link to Christmas, Easter and Eid. The vast majority of subjects are taught discretely but staff make meaningful links across subjects.

Our short-term plans are produced on a weekly and daily basis. We use these to set out the learning objectives for each lesson, identifying engaging activities and resources which will be used to achieve them.

In most subject areas we encourage staff to teach a weekly lesson; however, this is not the case for design technology. This was a notable change after the design technology audit. Each term, the whole-school has a design technology week. This helps to ensure that the children see the whole process from start to finish – from existing products through to their finished product. We believe that by crafting our curriculum this way, we improve the potential for our children to retain what they have been taught, to alter their long-term memory and thus improve the rates of progress they make.

Curriculum Impact

We use both formative and summative assessment information in every design technology lesson. Staff use this information to inform their short-term planning. This helps us provide the best possible support for all of our pupils, including the more able. Children will be assessed next to the progression of skills and also against our exemplification books. We will then look at the quality of products and pupil voice to ascertain if children are working at their year group expected level. This means that skills in design technology are progressive and build year on year.

A comprehensive monitoring cycle is developed at the beginning of each academic year. This identifies when monitoring is undertaken. Monitoring in design technology includes: book scrutinies, lesson observations and/or learning walks, pupil/parent and/or staff voice.

All of this information is gathered and reviewed. It is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly.

Cultural Capital

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours and skills that a student can draw upon and which demonstrated their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence. It is one of the key ingredients a student will draw upon to be successful in society, at Clifton and further education and eventually their career and the world of work.

At Coleridge we enhance children’s experience and learning by utilising different opportunities in our DT curriculum and around school and within our wider community.

We plan and deliver DT weeks linked to celebrations within school so outcomes are tangible and link to our current context. Whilst teaching the National Curriculum, we also embed various experiences to develop their skills in the curriculum area and prepare children for the real world. We ensure we provide exciting and engaging DT weeks to develop their thinking and practical skills whilst encouraging children to extend their vocabulary within DT.

Within this we also demonstrate and encourage our school values within the community projects of Aspire, Desire, Believe and Achieve. We always ensure that parents are involved and participate in DT activities, mainly working with Rotherham CLC, to ensure we model behaviours we want to promote in our school and the community and sharing ideas with them on activities to take place at home.

At Coleridge Primary school we believe that a high-quality art and design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.

What Art and DT look like in our school….

• In the Early Years, children will be given the opportunity to explore colour, texture, shape and form in two and three dimensions. The children will have access to a wide range of constructions, collage, painting and drawing activities, using appropriate tools and art materials. In order to tap their artistic potential, the children will be encouraged to develop their own creative ideas.
• In Key Stage 1, Art and DT is about expanding children’s creativity and imagination through providing art, craft and design activities relating to the children’s own identity and experiences, to natural and manufactured objects and materials with which they are familiar, and the locality in which they live. Children will explore the visual, tactile and sensory qualities of materials and processes and begin to understand and use colour, shape and space, pattern and texture, to represent their own ideas and feelings. Children will focus on the work of artists, craftspeople and designers by asking and answering questions, such as: ‘What is it like?’ ‘What do I think about it?’
• In Key Stage 2, children learn to master the skills and techniques acquired in KS1 and learn to become more critical of their own work, discussing how they could improve and refine their work. Art and Design is about fostering children’s creativity and imagination by building on their knowledge, skills and understanding of materials and processes, through providing more complex activities. Children’s experiences help them to understand the diverse roles and functions of Art and Design in the world around them.

Picture This!

Last year Coleridge took part in the Rotherham Picture This project. We made our own interpretation of Monet’s the Lilypad pond using watercolours. We also linked this to the issues around plastic pollution and incorporated this into our paintings. We created a whole school montage, which we then proudly showcased at the Picture This exhibition in Magna.

If you would like any information about our knowledge organisers then please contact us at enquiries@coleridgeprimary.org