Intent -

At Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, we recognise that high-quality design and technology education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of our school community. This drives us to focus on ensuring that DT is an inspiring and practical subject which provides all children with the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge and understanding of designing and making functional products (including nutrition).

Design and Technology education in a primary school setting involves two important elements and we aim to maximise opportunities to develop both of these:

• learning about how everyday things around us work and evaluating their efficacy;
• learning to design and make functional products for particular purposes and users, including how to prepare and cook food.

We feel it is vital to nurture creativity and innovation and also support our pupils as they take risks on the road to becoming resourceful and enterprising citizens who can solve problems in real and relevant contexts.

Implementation -

As a school, we aim to create an inquisitive learning environment within our classrooms and reinforce the understanding that they are a supportive place to plan, implement and adapt ideas and learn. The study of DT at Durham Lane allows our pupils to safely experience the wide range of skills and knowledge encompassed by this practical subject, as laid out in our curriculum which starts in the Early Years and ends in Year 6.

The following areas are covered at each stage:

Design

Make

Evaluate

Technical knowledge – Materials/textile/structures

Technical knowledge – Mechanisms

Technical knowledge – Electrical systems/IT Computer control and monitoring

Technical knowledge – Food and nutrition

Impact -

We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
• Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
• Work in children’s own sketchbooks.

Children in Foundation Stage are assessed within Expressive Arts and Design and their progress is tracked termly using Target Tracker. Age related expectation levels are reported to parents at the end of the reception year.