Our DT Subject Leader is Mrs Lindsay.
Curriculum Intent
At Gilnow, we believe that children should receive a Design and Technology curriculum which allows them to apply their creativity and passion through inspiring designing and making opportunities. We want to allow our children to aspire to be more by creating opportunities for them in the wider world. Through our Design and Technology curriculum, we want our children to be inspired by designers, engineers, architects and chefs to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products for real life purposes.
The children are given opportunities to reflect upon and evaluate past and present technology, its uses and its effectiveness and are encouraged to become innovators and risk-takers. Children acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as maths, science, computing and art.
At Gilnow, we are aware of the context of our school and the environment that our our cooking and nutrition curriculum is designed with our children’s needs in mind; to furnish children with an appreciation of nutrition, healthy eating and an appreciation of taste and flavour from other cultures. Learning how to cook is a crucial life skill we want our children to understand how to feed themselves and others affordability and well, now and in later life in the safest way.
Curriculum Implementation
Our whole school curriculum at Gilnow is designed to enable all children, regardless of background, ability and additional needs to flourish to become the best version of themselves. Through a variety of creative and practical activities, we teach the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in an iterative process of designing and making with children given access to a wide range of materials and tools to construct their designs. Teachers are encouraged to deliver the curriculum through blocked content or individual lessons.
Design and Technology is taught with clear skills and knowledge progression, this ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately, allowing children to build on their prior knowledge. For example, in Year 3, children are introduced to electrical systems, children will design, make and evaluate a product with a basic circuit such as a reading light. In Year 5 children then build on their knowledge of circuits to incorporate switches and motors to make products such as electrical fans.
Technical vocabulary is taught discreetly and deliberately along with key concepts thus ensuring that children to be able to discuss their designs and critically evaluate their products confidently.
As children progress through Gilnow, they will become familiar with the interactive process of design, make and evaluate with a strong emphasis on the technological knowledge the children require. Our Design and Technology curriculum is designed progressively so that children can build on their skills and apply a repertoire of knowledge and understanding which they can use across the curriculum.
The National Curriculum describes a genuine design and experience in terms of 6 interrelated principles: user, purpose, functionality, design decision, innovation and authenticity, which can be translated as making ‘Something, for Someone, for Some purpose (www.data.org.uk). We stand by these principles at Glinow to ensure children receive a quality Design and Technology curriculum.
The Design and Technology Curriculum Overview and Skills Progression document details a breakdown of the skills and content. Planning is detailed on medium-term plans, which clearly show the sequence of the learning and the links to prior learning.
Curriculum Impact
At Gilnow children develop the creative knowledge, practical and technical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and participate auspiciously in an increasingly technological world.
We assess the impact of our curriculum in a range of ways which include:
- Summative assessment of learning
- Images of the children’s practical learning
- Children’s Design and Technology books where they record their designs and evaluations
- Reflective evaluation of lessons, which leads to the adjustment of future lessons where needed
- Annual reporting to parents of standards across the curriculum
- Subject Leadership monitoring of subjects
