Through our Design and Technology Curriculum, we ensure children are enabled to design, make and evaluate functional products with users and purposes in mind. We use the D&T Associations ‘Projects on a Page’ which not only meets the National Curriculum requirements but ensures we meet our children’s needs and interests through creative and motivating projects within a range of contexts.
We recognise there are 6 essentials of good practice in D&T: user, purpose, functionality, design decisions, innovation and authenticity. The six essentials are embedded into the Project Planners, each of which has suggestions for users and purposes, and a list of authentic products that children could design and make.
When mapping the projects on our 3 year cycle, we have ensured each essential is adequately addressed over the course of the children’s D&T experiences in both the upper and lower school. We also endeavour to make cross-curricular links where possible to enhance the children’s learning. Children experience mechanical systems, electrical systems, textiles, structures and food.
D&T in the lower and upper school stems from the prior learning they received in the Reception class. Here, the children receive a significant proportion of their learning through high quality D&T experiences and activities, enabling children to ‘safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function’ and ‘use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes’. D&T also makes an important contribution to our young children’s learning across the remaining six areas of the EYFS framework, including Understanding the World, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, and Communication and Language.
Children in our Reception class experience the following elements which provides the foundations for our curriculum:
Design by talking about what they intend to do, are doing and have done.
Say who and what their products are for.
Draw what they have made, with some children drawing their ideas before they make.
Receive opportunities to make their own choices and to discuss the reasons for these.
Learn procedures for safety and hygiene.
Develop practical skills and techniques using a range of materials including food, textiles and construction materials.
Develop their knowledge and understanding in relation to mechanisms, structures, food and textiles.
Explore and using a range of construction kits.
Ask questions about a range of existing products.
Explore the designed and made world through the indoor and outdoor environment, and through role play.
Learn and using appropriate technical vocabulary.
The Content of our Curriculum at Brize Norton:
Through our chosen Projects on a Page, designing and making, and cooking and nutrition are linked in children’s learning. This means that as part of their food technology projects they will apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating, learn how to prepare dishes at KS1 and prepare and cook dishes at KS2. Food Technology is mapped into each year, no matter the cycle, as we believe developing a real understanding of balanced diets is essential for the well-being of our children. We also enrich this area of the curriculum by ensuring year groups have an additional cooking workshop each term delivered by one of our Teaching Partners.