Our Intent for Design and Technology at Roundhill Primary School

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”  Steve Jobs

At Roundhill, we offer a Design and Technology curriculum that provides children with a real-life context for learning.  We want to allow children to be critical, creative and meticulous in their approach to evaluating, planning and making a product for a purpose. Through the Design and Technology curriculum, children will be inspired by engineers, designers, chefs and architects to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products with a real-life purpose and to solve real-life problems.

Children will develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and safely, to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world. They will critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others. Children will also understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook simple meals.

Through our Design and Technology curriculum, children will learn how to take risks with a new plan or idea, becoming thoughtful, resourceful, innovative and capable citizens. Through their evaluation of past and present technologies, they will develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life, and recognise the essential contribution that high-quality design and technology makes to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of society.

Implementation

Our teaching of Design and Technology follows the design, make and evaluate cycle. Each stage is rooted in technical knowledge gained from looking at examples that already exist.  Wherever possible, the design process should be linked to real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning. While making, children will be taught how to use a range of tools and to develop the knowledge required to choose freely from these. To evaluate, children will learn to evaluate their own products against a design criterion. Each of these steps is underpinned with technical knowledge and high-quality vocabulary.

Opportunities are planned for children to evaluate key events and individuals who have helped shape the world, showing the real impact of design and technology on the wider environment and helping to inspire children to become the next generation of innovators. All pupils will be taught the essential aspects of need identification, research, design, construction and evaluation. From EYFS to KS2, our pupils will build up a body of key foundational knowledge (know what) and skills (know how). They will also explore the links between DT and other subject disciplines (maths, science, computing, art and engineering.)