Design and Technology Curriculum Statement of Intent

At Westwood we offer a high quality, engaging Design and Technology curriculum which is taught in context through our adventure approach to learning. The curriculum offer has been well mapped out in order to ensure progression across all year groups and key stages.

The teaching of Design and Technology remains high profile across school with Design and Technology being a key part of a number of adventures. While at Westwood children develop creativity, resilience and evaluative skills which will support them in their later lives. Design and Technology prepares pupils to participate in an ever changing technological world by becoming informed users and innovators of products. Pupils will understand and be able to implement the Design and Technology process from conception to the finished product.

Across all year groups, we want pupils to study the following skills and knowledge-based concepts, progressing their skills all the way from the Foundation stage to Year 6:

• Designing
• Making
• Evaluating
• Technical Knowledge
• Cooking and nutrition

We aim to link work to other subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Geography and Art.

Design and Technology Implementation

Pupils will experience a sequenced and varied curriculum using a wide range of materials and processes, making cross curricular links whenever possible such as with Geography and Art. Pupils will have access to relevant and varied resources and be able to make independent informed choices. We believe it is vital to a child’s learning that they receive first-hand knowledge from relevant professionals to assist pupils in their understanding of Design and Technology.

In EYFS we encourage our children to explore independently as much as possible through the Expressive Art and Design strand. Building on children’s interests can lead to them creating amazing inventions or making marks on paper that represent for them an experience or something they have seen. This is something we truly believe to be significant to a child’s development at Westwood and focus on children’s interests to prompt our planning. Encouraging children to choose and use materials and resources in an open-ended way helps them to make choices and to have confidence in their own ideas.

In Key Stage 1, Design and Technology is taught through the teaching of well-planned lessons using the National Curriculum. We teach Design and Technology through our adventure based approach so the children have a purpose for designing and making different products. Children are taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in the process of designing, making and then evaluating their finished product. The children are taught how to build dens in the local woods as part of their ‘If I ran a zoo’ adventure, sew pencil cases as part of their ‘The day the crayons quit’ adventure and tasting and designing smoothies as part of their ‘What happens in Wonderland?’ adventure, to name a few.

In Key Stage 2 children are given the opportunity to look at key events and individuals in Design and Technology that have helped shape the world. Pupils will be involved in at least one project each year to develop their cooking skills and enhance their knowledge and understanding of healthy eating. Through well planned sequences of lessons the pupils will develop their spiritual, moral, social and cultural skills and understanding.

We will have a Design and Technology focussed display in school displaying the different holiday challenges set. These displays celebrate exceptional practice and exemplify terminology and vocabulary used. Children will be asked to solve problems and develop their learning independently and are given support if needed. This allows the children to have ownership over their curriculum and lead their own learning in Design and Technology.

We are very proud of Design and Technology at Westwood and aim to encourage this passion throughout the children’s lessons by having both teachers and teaching assistants passionate about the subject too.

Design and Technology Impact

As a result of a well-structured and planned curriculum, pupils will understand Design and Technology as a process of plan, make and evaluate and they will understand, and be able to discuss, the relevance to their everyday lives.