Implementation

At Oak Tree Primary School we believe that Design and Technology is a crucial part of the school curriculum and we are dedicated to the delivery of high quality sessions.  A well thought out, whole school, yearly overview of the DT curriculum allows for skill and knowledge progression across year groups in all areas of DT (textiles, mechanisms, structures, food and electrical systems).  Each year group will access three D.T. topics a year and the curriculum is designed so that key concepts are revisited year on year to consolidate pupil understanding. 

Teachers are provided with the ownership and flexibility to plan for Design and Technology and use the D.T Association’s ‘Planning on a Page’ to help with the delivery and sequencing of lessons.  However, the structure of a unit follows this process in every year group:

• Investigative and evaluative activities
• Focussed tasks where pupils are taught specific technical knowledge, designing and making skills
• Planning and designing
• Making
• Evaluating

As a school, we promote Design and Technology in the wider school through our garden area where children grow and harvest their own produce.

Impact

Our Design and Technology curriculum enables and encourages our children to become critical thinkers. They look at existing designs to analyse and assess the effectiveness of products and then they consider ways of redesigning and reconstructing it to meet a design brief.  As children progress through the school, they learn to take risks and become resourceful, innovative and enterprising individuals. Children learn to be passionate and excited by the designing and making of products including working with, preparing and tasting food. Learning is assessed through the analysis of the pupil’s ability to evaluate, design, make and improve their own work.