Design and Technology

Vision

Design Technology prepares children to deal with tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. It encourages children to become independent, creative problem-solvers and thinkers both as individuals and as part of a team - making positive changes to their quality of life. It enables them to identify needs and opportunities, and to respond to them by developing a range of ideas and by making products and systems. Through the study of design and technology, they combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, as well as functions and industrial practices. This allows the children to reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and its impacts. Design and Technology helps all children to become astute and informed future consumers and potential innovators.

Intent

Our intent is that pupils use their creativity and imagination to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. Each child will develop, evaluate and improve through lessons that build up skills over a half term, recording these steps in their sketchbooks with the aim of producing a final product that can be evaluated by them, peers and their teacher alongside how an architect / designer may have influenced their own style. By doing so, pupils will acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art.

Art, craft and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality art and design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.

Spirituality in our Curriculum

Through Design and Technology, we enable spiritual development by using creativity and imagination. Children are given the opportunity to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. Extraordinary design can inspire awe and wonder of either its beauty, its function or its magnitude, e.g. the Shard or the inner workings of a clock. Our children are given space to reflect and be inspired by designs that are explicitly for religious experiences, e.g. churches, cathedrals and mosques. They are given space to think deeper about how the design creates a space for other people to connect to their spirituality.