We are aspiring inventors!
At Southville Primary, we aspire to be creative inventors. Our design and technology curriculum will prepare children to take an active part in the development of today’s rapidly changing world. We will inspire them to be inventive problem-solvers, effective team members and reflective evaluators. We will provide them with opportunities to develop practical skills for life and above all, develop their aspirations to become the designers, innovators, and technologists of the future.
We will do this by:
- identifying needs and opportunities so children can respond with their own ideas and designs
- reflecting on and evaluating present and past design and technology, its uses, and its impacts
- considering aesthetic, social, and environmental issues and their impact on product design
- developing their skills in working practically with a variety of tools and materials to design and make products for a wide range of users
- creating a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems, and food products with a real-life purpose
- critiquing, evaluating, and testing ideas and products created by themselves and others
- researching engineers, designers, architects, and chefs
- providing opportunities to communicate their ideas through discussion, diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer-aided design
- understanding the principles of nutrition and a healthy and varied diet
- building knowledge of where and how ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed
- preparing and cooking a variety of dishes using different cooking techniques
Implementation
The teaching and learning of design and technology is taught as part of our immersive curriculum and in line with the requirements of the National Curriculum. Knowledge is taught, reinforced and recapped during our immersive units of study, when elements of design and technology are fed in where appropriate.
Design may include studies of movements, periods and individuals as well as architecture, inventions, structures and product design. Children learn from and about designers, inventors, engineers and chefs.
In DT, we organise learning into three main objectives:
- To master practical skills
- To design, make, evaluate and improve
- To take inspiration from design throughout history
Year teams plan and assess lessons using progression grids to ensure progression within and across year groups so that children build on their learning and are challenged appropriately.
We provide an enabling environment for design outside – in playgrounds - as well as on local Forest School and other visits to the natural environment. In the playgrounds of both sites, we provide materials and objects that the children can use to build models and structures, as part of their play. Both sites also have a substantial sandpit where children creatively play, building 3D structures - exploring both wet and dry sand – using tools, adding objects to enhance and building ways to transport the sand.
Children in every year group have the opportunity to participate in Forest School which provides opportunities for children to enhance their DT experience in the classroom. During the sessions, our children explore, play and learn in a safe, natural environment. They are encouraged to take risks, make decisions and initiate their own learning experiences, such as tree climbing, building structures and dens and working creatively with natural materials (for example building resources to support wildlife).
The DT curriculum is enhanced by day trips to local farms (for example Year 1 visit Windmill Hill City Farm to help them understand where food comes from) as well as residential camps for year 5 and 6. We also invite speakers to assemblies (for example, Farmlink spoke about where our Christmas Dinner comes from) and participate in the annual ‘Eat Them to Defeat Them’ Campaign which aims to promote healthier eating to children.
Our Myrtle site benefits from a DT room which provides all the space and resources for children to prepare and cook, mainly savoury dishes. Each year group cooks at least twice a year, as well as having ‘tasting’ opportunities (for example, Year 4 sample food that would have been eaten by Ancient Egyptians in their history topic).
The school runs an after-school “Creativity Club” which is a process-based class which facilitates learning through art, design and creativity. The sessions are based around cleverly curated packs of materials, additional tools, plus interesting methods or techniques to tease out exploration and invention.