Design Technology
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Design Technology at Harris At Harris Primary School, we inspire our pupils to use their creativity and imagination to design and make products that solve real-world problems. We challenge our pupils to link their learning across maths, science, computing and art to create high-quality products for specific users and meaningful purposes. We want our pupils to take risks and become resourceful, innovative and enterprising. By exploring designs from the past and present, they develop a clear understanding of how design technology shapes our daily lives and the wider world. How we do this We want pupils at Harris to recognise that Design Technology embodies some of the highest forms of creative problem-solving. Our Design Technology curriculum follows the National Curriculum, enriched by the Lancashire Key Learning in Design and Technology. Ensuring a progressive build of technical knowledge and practical skills from Early Years Foundation Stage to Year 6. Each unit begins with children investigating, exploring and asking questions about existing products. Design Technology at Harris is driven by Design Criteria:
The User: Who is this for? The Purpose: What problem does it solve? The Functionality: Does it work? From here, pupils engage in ‘focused tasks’ to develop specific techniques. This is the "research phase" where pupils are able to experiment and create prototypes to develop their technical knowledge and understanding of mechanisms (levers, sliders, wheels, axels, chassis, CAMs), structures (freestanding, shell and framed), textiles (joining techniques), and electrical systems (series circuits). Pupils, then plan and design their own product through drawings, diagrams, CAD and annotations. Then, we allow time for the Iterative process where pupils produce a final functional product. DT work is captured in pupils own journals. These record the sequence of learning, from annotated sketches, photographs of making and the final product and evaluations. Throughout the whole unit, we encourage pupils to evaluate their work against their original design criteria. Children are encouraged to discuss, self and peer assess and evaluate their product by identifying what went well and improvements. Pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 have their own journals personal to them, which moves up with them year by year. Using their DT journals, we recap prior technical knowledge before introducing new vocabulary and concepts. Design Technology Enquire Throughout each unit, pupils work creatively by:
Oracy Design Technology plays an important role in developing children’s Oracy skills. DT lessons give our children rich opportunities to talk, listen and share ideas in meaningful ways. When children discuss their creative ideas and functional solutions, they build in confidence in speaking and learn to communicate clearly. Assessment and feedback Planned progression allows teachers to know what knowledge pupils should have prior to each topic. This prior knowledge should be the starting point for any new learning. It ensures that pupils are building on solid foundations and that any misconceptions or gaps can be addressed before moving on. Due to the systems we have in place, where children are questioned about their learning over the course of the topic and throughout the year, we minimise the chance of these gaps occurring. This formative assessment is the main way in which we assess children and adapt teaching or intervene accordingly. We formalise this using an online assessment tool, which informs our end-of-year summative assessment. |
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