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DT
Everything, always moving forward.
“Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works” -Steve Jobs CEO of Apple Inc
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, educators will prepare children for the primary design and technology curriculum through practical explorations of a variety of media and materials.
Children will have opportunities to design and make in response to a variety of stimuli, using recycled materials, malleable and natural materials and a variety of loose parts. Children will have opportunities to cut, shape and join materials in a variety of ways and at different scales, both indoors and outside. Children are encouraged to talk about their creations, naming material they have used, explaining some choices, identifying what they like best and what they might add or change.
Across KS1 and KS2, we engage the children with real life problems which require solutions to ignite their interests and give their learning purpose. We try to engage with different design experts where possible during projects. ICT is used in a range of forms to enhance the Design Technology curriculum. Children use ICT to research, record and present information and designs in digital forms.
In DT, our curriculum is designed to allow the children to learn about ‘everything, always moving forward’. This mantra is an underlying feature of lessons to allow children to understand the historical development of design and technology, the impact this has had on our lives and how this may be applied in the future. This is planned for in order to develop curriculum links and to promote critical thinking about how current learning fits within people’s lives now and in the future. Children are encouraged to develop an awareness of their position in the world and actively link their knowledge across the curriculum.
Throughout the curriculum, there are many opportunities given to the children to reflect on their Design and technology skills. During each topic, the children are encouraged to self assess their projects and designs to ensure they create the best project or design they can; this helps the children to reflect on and begin to understand how they can improve further, thus developing the core skills set out in our DT curriculum.
DT Progression Document
Design Technology in action outdoors
DT is linked to real life learning and often our outcomes are closely linked to each termly project. Every year, we engage in the Seven Billion Ideas project which is closely linked to the curriculum. DT follows a cross curricular approach so that the skills used in DT can be linked to other areas of the the curriculum and vice versa. Everything we do in DT is designed to allow children to see past what is learnt in school to the wider world.