Design Technology

What does Design and technology look like at Rosa Street?

At Rosa Street Primary School, we want to foster a love of creativity. We focus on having an ambitious coverage of the Design and Technology curriculum and focus on teaching key designing, making and evaluating skills. In school, we motivate our children through engaging activities, trips, and themed days, which give pupils an insight into the vast world of design and technology. Here are Rosa Street, we intend to build upon children’s previous knowledge and learning to prepare them for their next phase of education, through and beyond primary education. Our Design and Technology curriculum is tailored to our school and our pupils. We designed our curriculum to ensure progression of learning from EYFS through to Year 6. We have also carefully thought out the Design and Technology vocabulary that children should know, use and understand in different year groups, which will progress through school.  With a careers focus, we want to open children’s minds to the world of work and show children where the Design and Technology industry fits into that. We believe that Design and Technology enables children to exercise their creativity and imagination through designing, making and evaluating their work. The curriculum encourages children to become independent, creative problem solvers.

Here at Rosa Street we believe that our curriculum provides a carefully structured, broad and balanced sequence of learning from Reception to Year 6 to ensure progressive development of lasting knowledge and skills. We constantly try to ensure that we are adjusting our teaching in line with the needs and views of learners. Through our broad and balanced Design and Technology curriculum, we provide children with opportunities to develop their designing and making skills which equips them with the necessary knowledge and understanding to design and make a product. We also believe that evaluation is an integral part of the design process and allows children to adapt, improve and develop their products. When designing our curriculum, we have developed cohesion across school by making sure our planning is aligned with The National Curriculum. This also ensures we have high-quality endpoints for our pupils. We have used key ‘golden threads’ across year groups to make sure key Design and Technology skills are built upon. Through their time at Rosa Street, pupils will cover; food and nutrition, cooking, textiles, mechanisms, structures, electrical systems, mechanical systems, hydraulic pneumatic systems and computer aided design. We have developed knowledge organisers for each unit which contain an overview of the sequence of learning, the ‘golden threads,’ relating to the skills and key vocabulary. The organisers are available in each lesson, to help children throughout their learning, and give them independence to complete tasks. At Rosa Street. we want to ensure that key vocabulary is embedded within the curriculum and children are given opportunities to use this vocabulary to discuss and present their views and opinions. Design and Technology allows children to apply knowledge and skills learned in other curriculum areas such as Maths, Science and Art, and makes links with topic work where appropriate.

We have woven our awards through our curriculum, and we have made clear, cohesive links to Rights Respecting Schools and Educate and Celebrate. We aim to empower our children by teaching them about diversity and the rights of the child. Subsequently, they can make their own informed decisions and choices. We have also created links to Eco Schools, for example, recycling and the use of food to prevent food waste.

Within our school, we have a high percentage of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, so ensuing they have life skills is our key focus, especially with in our cooking and nutrition units. We teach our children key food preparation and cooking skills which will prepare them for their life beyond Rosa Street. In school, we teach our children how to plan and make a meal on a budget. We also aim to inspire young people and make them aware of careers within the Design and Technology industries. This is also an opportunity to highlight jobs and careers that our children could aspire to in the future. 

Children’s understanding will be evidenced in a range of ways. Written work will be evident in books showing the planning and evaluating process. Photographs and videos of skills and making will be stored online and in class floor books. Videos and photographs will also be used to show themed days and trips. It is important to us as a school that we ingrain oracy links across our Design and Technology curriculum. We feel that spoken and video evidence is as important as written evidence, as this provides equal opportunities for all children; allowing them to demonstrate their skills and understanding. In our cohesion document, our endpoints for each sequence of learning are clear; children will have gained and used valuable skills which will be built upon and help them in later life.

Through Design and Technology, we want to expand children’s minds and make them aware of how they can have an impact upon the world through this constantly growing industry. When our children reach the end of their time with us at Rosa Street, they will have gained a wide skill set. They will be able to demonstrate their designing, making and evaluating skills through food and nutrition, cooking, textiles, mechanisms, structures, electrical systems, mechanical systems, hydraulic pneumatic systems and computer aided design. Our children will have developed ‘sticky’ knowledge that can be taken on into their next steps of learning and later life. Our children will know more and remember more.