Design and Technology at Westlands

Intent

The National Curriculum for Design and Technology states that the subject is “inspiring, rigorous and practical”. Design and Technology aims to allow children to use their imagination and creativity to design and make a range of products within a variety of contexts. Children will build and apply the knowledge and skills needed to design high quality products. They are given the opportunity to understand nutrition and learn how to plan meals and cook.

At Westlands we aim to implement this through a variety of teaching methods. We encourage the children to draw on skills within Mathematics, Art, Science and Computing when designing. Children will deepen their understanding and independence within all of these subject areas during their Design and Technology lessons.

design and technology

Children are given regular opportunities to develop their understanding of the technological world. We will evaluate past and present design and technology and the ways that these have influenced modern society. This will allow our children to have a more critical approach to their own designs and creations.

Throughout their time at Westlands Primary, children will be encouraged to take risks when designing and making their products. Lessons will be hands on and engaging, with the children having access to lots of resources and materials. They will be encouraged to think critically in order to evaluate their past prototypes and when testing their current designs. This will allow the children to build upon their artistic skills and become more resourceful.

We want the children at Westlands Primary to develop their imagination, their critical thinking and their understanding of the world around them through their enjoyment of Design and Technology. We aim for our children to question and think innovatively about the world around them in order to design and develop their own products with a purpose in mind.

Implementation

At Westlands we follow the 2014 National Curriculum and adapt and it to suit the needs of the learners. We teach our DT. through a Creative Curriculum approach and make links to other subjects whenever it is useful to do so.

For further details of this please refer to individual year group’s long term plans and information sent out by class teachers.

Impact

Our Design and Technology Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

  • A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes with our monitoring processes;
  • Pupil discussions about their learning;
  • Assessment Grids linked to key objectives.