Design Technology
Intent
At Milton Mount, we are Designers! We believe learning should be relevant and engaging and allow children to exercise their creativity and innovation through exploration, designing and making.
We intend to help develop children’s sense of the varied needs of a user and how this impacts the purpose and functionality of a product so that they can design and make products that show innovation and authenticity through their creative, technical and practical expertise whilst drawing on their learning from other subjects.
Our curriculum starts in the Early Years Foundation Stage focusing on the early learning goal – expressive arts and designs, and continues up through to Year 6, following the new National curriculum requirements and six interrelated principles that have been agreed by the National Curriculum Expert Group for D&T.
Do More
The curriculum is structured and sequenced so that all children actively engage in exploration and trial and error-based lessons that they will be able to answer in detail at the end of each unit. Our aim is to plan, create and teach engaging, purposeful lessons that include children to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products with a real-life purpose. D&T allows children to apply the knowledge and skills learned in other subjects, particularly Maths, Science and Art.
Know More
Each unit begins with exploration and investigation. Children are taught to analyse and evaluate existing market products and their effectiveness in meeting the needs of the user. Children acquire a broad knowledge of designing, making and evaluating and through this develop skills they can use and apply in a range of contexts including structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products
Remember More
Sticky starters are used at the start of each lesson which allows children to make meaningful connections between units and topics. Through a series of three questions, children are able to recall key knowledge and skills from last week, last term and last year. This enables children to bring previous knowledge into current learning, helping them to make connections within the world around them.
Experience More
Through the DT curriculum children should be inspired by real world experts including engineers, designers, chefs and architects. A combination of visitors, trips, themed days and a focus on first hand experiences help to ensure a memorable learning experience for all. Some trips and visitors have included: visits from engineers at Gatwick, trips to the STEM centre and bridge building workshops. We endeavour to draw on local businesses such as Gatwick Airport to help support children’s understanding of areas such as engineering to try and give real life examples of work to inspire children’s designs.
Consider more
By doing, knowing, remembering and experiencing more, children at Milton Mount will have gathered a designer’s perspective of the world around them. They will be able to make links, connections to the substantive concepts as well as generate their own lines of exploration. They will continually question the effectiveness of their own and others products, evaluating how well their products meet the needs, wants, values, interests and preferences of the intended users.
Implementation
Throughout the school, the six key principles of user, purpose, functionality, design decisions, innovation and authenticity are interwoven in to each of the units of work. D.T units alternate with Art units with each year group covering three units of the areas of structures, mechanisms, textiles, food and electrical systems. Across a child’s primary schooling, each child would have explored each area four times. This will enable children to have a firm understanding of the key principles by the time they leave Milton Mount.
In EYFS, the design and technology early learning goal forms part of the learning within Understanding the World as well as Expressive Arts & Design ELG: Creating with Materials. This is covered through a range of adult led units and child centred learning. Areas I the continuous provision enable children to design, make and evaluate on a regular basis through their purposeful art, d.t construction and food areas.
In Key Stage 1, children start to develop their design, make and evaluate skills through a variety of creative and practical activities. Children are taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in a cyclical process of designing and making. They work in a range of relevant, purposeful contexts such as the home, the local area, industry and wider environment. Through the design process, children design functional appealing products based on a given user and communicate their ideas through spoken, illustrated and labelled designs. Children select from a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks of cutting, shaping, joining and finishing in order to make a finished product using technical knowledge and vocabulary.
n Key Stage 2, children build upon their understanding of design, make and evaluate skills through a variety of creative and practical activities. Children are taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in a cyclical process of designing and making. They research and develop design briefs and criteria based upon a range of relevant, purposeful contexts such as the home, leisure, culture, the local area, industry and wider environment. They developed a heightened knowledge of user centred design through experiencing life as their intended user. Through the design process, children design functional and aesthetically pleasing products aimed at particular individuals or groups and communicate their ideas through discussions, annotated sketches and labelled diagrams such as exploding diagrams. Children select from a wide range of tools, equipment, materials and components to perform practical tasks of cutting, shaping, joining and finishing in order to make a finished product using technical knowledge and vocabulary. Children consider the views of others to improve their own work, understanding he impact it has on the world around them.
Individual units are broken down in to smaller steps to guide children through the full design, make and evaluate process linked to the progression document, enabling children to develop design skills as a discipline.
Structure of a lesson.
- Sticky starters made up of three key questions about children’s learning from last week, last term and last year enable children to recap and draw on previous knowledge. These range from recalling key terminology, knowledge and skills linked to their previous learning in each area of learning (structures, mechanisms, food, textiles and electrical systems). Children are encouraged to use their oracy skills to talk to their learning partner before recapping with the whole class. This enables the class teacher to address any misconceptions and ensure what knowledge children have been able to retain from the last lesson, last term and last year. (Remember more/ Know more)
- Each lesson children are reminded of where they are in the learning journey, focussing on recapping key knowledge, vocabulary and skills taught so far and how today’s learning, alongside previous learning, will provide children with the vital knowledge and skills needed to make their final product.
- Lessons will link to a clear design, make or evaluate skill such as investigate and analyse a range of existing products, select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing], accurately or design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria.
- Teacher input can be led in a variety of ways but should continually encourage pupils to problem solve and learn from previous knowledge and/or existing products. Key questions will be used to develop discussions within the classroom (Experience more) by asking children how and why based questions e.g. why aren’t these wheels moving? How could we make the wheels move faster? Why do you think the vehicle is moving in a wobbly line? Children will be encouraged to play with and explore existing products and their effectiveness on the intended user before designing and creating their own innovations.
- Each unit of work will guide pupils through a series of lessons following the understanding the intended user, design, make and evaluate process.
- Task – independent / paired / group. For every unit, each child will create their own or group- based product aimed at meeting the needs of an intended user through design briefs and success criteria. Teachers will think carefully about all needs in the classroom, supporting and differentiating the tasks to enable all children to be able to access the learning. This may be through varied tools and resources, use of jigs to measure or as simple as a pair of gloves to remove the sensory discomforts of a lesson. Challenge questions or added levels will be used to develop further children or previous learning, for example, could you make 2 moving parts, could you use a motor to control the wheels instead of a propellor.
- Work is recorded is design booklets that show each stage of the learning journey and include photographs of children’s finished products. (Do more/ Consider more).
- Children are continually given the opportunity to reflect on their learning and evaluate the effectiveness of their own work against the design brief and success criteria (Consider more). As part of this, children complete their final evaluation as the penultimate lesson to provide children the time to work improving their model to better meet the design brief and success criteria.
Impact
By the time children leave our school they will:
· Have an excellent attitude to learning and independent working.
· 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 and skills accurately.
· The ability to manage risks exceptionally well to manufacture products safely and hygienically.
· A passion for the subject.