The students at Castle Primary School will be taught how to take a design brief and see it through to its evaluation stage. They will work through a process, whereby they research and design a product, then make trials, construct and evaluate the product. These skills will enable them to become brave and ambitious designers and innovators. They will learn how to grow their confidence and produce models that they can be proud of which have purpose and audience. Our pupils will be creative and practical with their ideas and show courage in presenting them through a variety of communication means. Our DT curriculum will enrich our students’ understanding of famous inventors and designers and their impact on our world. It will enable them to recognise their own ability to make their stamp in the world as innovators and entrepreneurs in our ever-growing and changing world. Castle Primary School pupils will gain an understanding about how inventors can impact the wider community by visiting sites of significance such as Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.
We teach a skills-based design and technology curriculum at Castle Primary School, which gives opportunities for our children to express their creative imagination and use a wide range of materials and components to create their purposeful designs. Through delivering an iterative curriculum, children are given the opportunity to continually evaluate and rework ideas so they can produce the most effective and functional prototypes and models. Children practise and develop their skills, leading to mastery in the key processes of DT: researching, designing, building and evaluating. A whole-school approach has been adopted ensuring that DT is integrated through the wider curriculum across the school (specifically science) and many positive experiences are taking place, including; well-planned DT lessons which have deep cross-curricular links, visits to Bristol and other surrounding areas, links with our local businesses and trips to nearby secondary schools. We celebrate our children’s talents through termly celebration days, where we invite our parents in to see the fantastic creations the children have made.
Design portfolios are incorporated in the Discovery books and are used throughout KS1 and KS2. They are record of the progression of the design process for each project. They include a variety of different design processes such as drawings and sketches, cross-sectional and exploded diagrams, peer discussions and initial brain storming ideas. The portfolios also include photos of models and mock-ups that were made in the process. The children’s progression is shown through the portfolio from brief to final outcome. It demonstrates the skills and knowledge they have acquired and built upon each year and are a vital piece of evidence in our monitoring process. Alongside the portfolios, at the end of a DT unit, children produce a polished model in which they can be proud of. Teachers encourage their class to produce individual models as well as whole class/school projects too. By the end of Year 6, the pupils at Castle Primary School will have been exposed to a variety of established innovators and will be able to recognise and comment on many aspects of their work. They will have developed a strong technological skillset and be confident in their ability to take an idea and develop it into a purposeful, appealing and functional product.
Children’s work is celebrated on display both inside and outside their classrooms, giving them ownership and pride in their achievements. It is the responsibility of all members of staff to present and celebrate this work through the school. Teachers are held accountable through portfolio scrutinies and audits. Through staff meetings and insets, teachers own subject knowledge is developed and their confidence built. Required resources are ordered well in advance of the proposed lessons, so teachers feel prepared and confident to teach. Once a term, parents are invited in to celebrate their children’s work. The products that children produce is a key element of what children enjoying sharing on these occasions.
Design and technology is a practical and vital subject. It is crucial to the advancement of children’s development in creativity, self-reflection and their ability to turn academic subjects such as science and maths into meaningful products in the real world. It teaches them how to take risks and so become more innovative, enterprising and capable. Students develop a critical understanding of the impact of design and technology on daily life and the wider world.
If we want Britain to be one of the leading countries in designing, making and inventing, then DT needs to be at the forefront of our curriculum. Innovation in the UK depends on design and technology being taught in our schools. The more we apply these creative elements at primary and KS3, the bigger the outcome at KS4 and beyond. We want our children to be the next generation of designers, innovators and engineers.
