Intent

Our aim at St Bartholomew’s is for the pupils to use their curiosity to think creatively to problem solve to make existing products even better. Through exposing children to a wide range of products, this will spark their curiosity into the thinking behind successful products and inspire their creativity when creating their own products. Our vision is that through this exposure of successful existing products, children are able to become designers, developers, makers and evaluators and understand the importance of products within key events or people in history. An essential principle of our Design and Technology curriculum is that children have opportunities to think critically and reflectively about existing products as well as their own, allowing them to make adaptations during the creative process. A hands on approach allows children to access other areas on the curriculum such as Art, Mathematics, Science and Computing. The skills within Design and Technology are developed throughout the primary curriculum so they are equipped with the skills they will need beyond the primary stage.

Implementation

Our Design and Technology curriculum is implemented through a range of different projects over the children’s time here at St Bartholomew’s.

• Children will experience and acquire a range of skills that can be progressive and linkable over their time at St Bartholomew’s. This ensures children are constantly building upon their prior knowledge and skills so they are able to expand their understanding to solve problems, design and construct a range of different products. Each Design and Technology project will allow children to fully engage and immerse themselves into the research-design-make-evaluate process.

• Children are able to research existing products and are provided with a variety of real life products to explore in great detail and create their own success criteria by evaluating existing products.

• For each project, the children will follow the research-design-make-evaluate process which allows them to reflect on their designs and think of ways they can improve and make their design better. Teachers model how to think critically and through questioning, children are able to have opportunities to edit their designs and think and adapt like creators.

• Cross-curricular links with computing enables children to create and present their designs digitally using technology as well as through manual drawing which links to Art.

• With projects, children are given scenarios that enable them to think creatively and imaginatively which sparks an eagerness and excitement for learning.

• Safety is explained when handling equipment such as knifes (in food technology), needles (in textiles) and basic food hygiene.

Impact

Here at St Bartholomew’s, we strive for children to enjoy and become confident creators and remember skills and knowledge they have learnt throughout their engaging and hands on experience at primary school. They will also have a good understanding of the skills and techniques in which they can transfer and use in their future life and learning beyond their primary school.