Design and Technology

Subject Statement of Intent

At Holy Rosary, we value Design and Technology as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. We believe that, through high quality and well planned Design and Technology lessons, the children are inspired to develop creative, technical and practical skills in order to prepare them for our ever changing world. Through the carefully planned progression of skills and knowledge children are able to solve real and relevant problems as their critical thinking skills develop. These skills are designed to be transferrable throughout their time at Holy Rosary and also for their further education and beyond.

The Design and Technology curriculum at Holy Rosary aims to enable all children to develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world. Our children will be able to develop the skills and knowledge for a critical understanding of the impact of Design and Technology on daily life. 

Implementation Design and Technology is taught as a main key focus, at least once a term in each class. We implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the school, with a focus on knowledge and skills taken from the National Curriculum, which ensures that coverage of the National Curriculum is complete.  In Foundation Stage Design and Technology is taught through Knowledge and Understanding of the World.

Design and Technology at Holy Rosary is taught through a key knowledge curriculum based on the National Curriculum. Teachers plan lessons for their class using our progression of key knowledge and skills document. This ensures that the curriculum is covered and the skills and knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.  Children are given the opportunity to explore, design and evaluate their work and other pupils’ work. During their learning journey the children will develop their knowledge of food, mechanisms, structures and textiles. In Foundation Stage Design and Technology is taught through Knowledge and Understanding of the World.

At Holy Rosary, through Design and Technology, we believe children will become confident in the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to enable them in an ongoing process of designing and making as they draw upon other subjects such as mathematics, art, science and computing. As skills and knowledge develop they become keen to learn new skills and work hard to evaluate and improve their work.  Children will be confident to take risks as they become more resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable individuals. They will understand how key events in Design and Technology have helped shape the world.

What is taught across the school in Design & Technology:

Key Knowledge

Curriculum overviews showing knowdlge and skills across all key stages can be downloaded below.

Assessment Assessment for Design & Technology is completed throughout the school by class teachers. In the Early Years Foundation Stage Design & Technology is assessed using the Early Learning Goals and Development Matters for Expressive Arts and Design. This is recorded using the Tapestry Online Learning Journal and Insight Tracker. In KS1 and KS2, Design and Technology is assessed against key knowledge descriptors for each area of the curriculum. This takes pace ternly and is recorded using Insight Tracker.

Impact

We aim for all pupils to:

• Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world
• Know that the design process of brief – research – planning – making and evaluating is essential in any project
• Build and apply a wide range of knowledge and skills in order to design and make prototypes and products
• Evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others
• Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook simple dishes.