Mr Westwell leads DT throughout school.

'Every day we are surrounded by items that have been carefully designed and created to fulfil a specific purpose. My aim for our children is that they will be inspired to find out more about these items and the process that goes in to creating them. Through learning about different designers, we can understand their motives behind what they design and we can follow a similar process in order to create things ourselves. There are many skills used in DT that can be transferred to other subjects and to every day life, such as evaluating our work during the design process and providing and receiving feedback about different products.'

Mr Westwell

DT Curriculum

Design and technology is an inspiring and practical subject. At Euxton CE, it is our mission to ensure children use creativity, imagination and design and make products that relate to real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts. We aim to give our children the best possible opportunities and learning experiences, enabling them to reach their full potential. We aim to ensure that the children at our school are equipped for life-long learning in an ever-changing, diverse, local and world-wide community. The cross curricular nature of Design and Technology offers a setting for the children to apply knowledge and skills linked to a number of other subjects including Art, Maths and Science. Skills are developed using materials and tools in designing and making objects and food products with an emphasis on healthy living. Learning about food provides opportunities to learn about diet, nutrition, food safety and hygiene, food preparation and cooking as well as looking at where food comes from. Working with a variety of materials aims to help children learn important life skills such as sewing, sawing, cutting etc. Children learn independently and in groups, learning to cooperate, plan, design and make and evaluate their work. They learn to make their own decisions with support and encouragement which helps them to embed our British Values. Overall, Design and Technology at our school encourages the development of children’s critical understanding of impact on every-day life.

Knowledge

There are five main areas of DT taught throughout school. These are; Cooking & Nutrition, Textiles, Mechanical Systems, Structures and Electrical Systems.

Within each area, substantive and disciplinary knowledge are taught. These can then be recalled and built on each year.

Substantive knowledge is taught prior to the design phase of a project. This means that before children design their own product, they have a good understanding of the product they are making, what is needed to make it work and why it is used.

Disciplinary knowledge is taught before or during the making and evaluating phases of the project. This helps children to understand the steps required to make their product correctly and improve it once they have evaluated.

Assessment

At our school, assessment is a vital part of the teaching process. Assessment is used to inform planning and to facilitate differentiation. The assessment of children’s work is on-going to ensure that understanding is being achieved and that progress is being made. Feedback is given to the children as soon as possible, and marking work will be guided by the school’s Marking Policy. Teachers monitor progress and adjust their teaching accordingly. Brick wall assessments are used at the end of each term to determine whether children are developing, secure or exceeding against certain criteria. Informal chats with pupils are carried out by the DT lead to hear their views and ideas towards DT. Progress and evidence is shared with our Governors also.

Create an Euxton model of assessment (5 checkpoints) which embeds retrieval practices and supports a robust monitoring and assessment cycle.

Embed the DT curriculum via the design-make-evaluate technical knowledge cycle.

Encourage children to think of big questions relating to their DT projects.