Design and Technology

Intent

At Broomwood Primary School, we aim to create an innovative curriculum that provides children with opportunities to design a product that solves real life problems, develops children's skills and allows them to evaluate the success of it for the intended user.

Aims

• develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world
• build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users 
• critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others
• understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook.

Implementation

• The children present their Design and Technology work through a booklet which allows them to explore the full process of researching, designing, skill developing, making and evaluating. 
• We give the children opportunities to handle real products and explore how they are made before making their own. They have opportunities to explore food using all their senses in cooking sessions.
• We provide children with a design criteria which sets out what product we will make, a problem for it to solve and who the user of the product is. 
• We teach children the skills needed to make their product and apply them into their product
• We encourage children to manage risks in Design Technology by handling real tools and cooking equipment.  
• We evaluate our products linking back the the intended user and purpose. We evaluate our friends products and show them to other year groups to celebrate our success. 
• We link mathematics into our design technology lessons giving children opportunities to measure, shape and explore angles. 
• Children are encouraged to be innovative and creative, designing new and original products.
• We the skills of our governor and care takers by giving the children specilist teaching on brick laying and woodwork. 

In the early years foundation stage:

• Children use real tools in the workshop area to join and cut materials to make models.
• Children design and then build products with large and small construction.
• Children are encouraged to manage risks and explore using tools such as screws and screw drivers.
• We allow children to tinker, taking products apart to see how they are made. 
• We provide open ended STEM challenges to explore how we can solve a problem such as helping a car get across the water.