Design Technology

Design & Technology (DT)

Intent

At Radford Semele, we recognise the importance of Design Technology as it develops children’s skills and knowledge in design, structures, mechanisms, electrical control and a range of materials, including food. Through our DT curriculum, we aim to develop children's creativity, problem solving skills and encourage them to take risks and think about real life relevant problems. We intend for our pupils to draw upon other STEM subjects to support their understanding of DT and encourage them to become resourceful and innovative citizens and recognise the impact of DT upon the world.

We recognise the importance of instilling a love of cooking to inspire children to be creative and learn a crucial life skill.

Implementation

We deliver DT termly as part of our theme curriculum. We ensure a broad and balanced curriculum by covering a variety of skills and techniques through four key areas: materials and construction, textiles, cooking and nutrition and mechanics.

We are clear that our DT curriculum is about designing for a real life purpose and follow the process:

Exploring and evaluating existing products
Skill development
Designing, making and evaluating

Cooking and Nutrition lessons are taught as part of our Masterclass sessions. In these sessions, pupils are taught in our kitchen to understand the principles of healthy eating, how to prepare dishes using a range of techniques and understand seasonality and where food comes from.

We also enrich our DT curriculum by offering Design Technology links in our Forest School. Within Forest School, children develop their design and construction skills.

Impact

DT knowledge and skills are assessed throughout a unit to allow teachers to track pupil progress and inform pupil planning. In addition to quantitative progress and attainment data, we also measure the impact of our curriculum through further monitoring such as talking to pupils, questionnaires, sharing work, looking at books and through lesson observations.

In 2023, the children made the following comments about our DT curriculum: