Design and Technology
Design and Technology at Brierley.
At Brierley, our vision is to engage and inspire children to become resourceful, innovative learners who confidently, safely and successfully take part in design and technology projects. We aim to nurture creativity, imagination and strong interpersonal skills, enabling pupils to persevere, build resilience and reflect on their own progress. Our children feel a sense of pride and achievement, and they enjoy sharing their Design and Technology work with others.
Our Design and Technology curriculum is delivered through lessons that are engaging, challenging and exciting, supported by the KAPOW scheme of work. This provides a clear structure for teaching and learning through the core processes of designing, making and evaluating.
Drawing on the National Curriculum, we have developed key concepts, principles and themes into a progressive framework of knowledge and skills. This ensures pupils continually grow, refine and extend their Design and Technology capabilities within the context of 21st-century Britain.
The curriculum is designed to meet the needs of all learners. It is rich, varied and creative, giving children ownership of their ideas and designs. It is imaginative and ambitious, yet flexible enough to be adapted for pupils with additional needs. Rooted in both knowledge and skills, the curriculum enables lessons to build meaningfully upon one another and move away from isolated activities towards coherent sequences of learning.
Our Design and Technology curriculum prioritises active, multi-sensory learning, encouraging pupils to demonstrate their understanding in different ways and to consolidate their knowledge over time. Each lesson builds on previously taught skills, as does progression from one year group to the next. All teaching follows the sequence of design, make and evaluate.
By using this design–make–evaluate approach in every unit, children develop a deep understanding of specific skills and learn how to apply them in a variety of contexts. Pupils evaluate their products against clear design criteria, helping them to reflect and improve. DT is taught to a consistently high standard, with each stage of the process valued equally. Pupils’ DT folders show evidence of all stages and demonstrate clear progression across the key stages.
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Assessment
Formative assessment is on going throughout each lesson and each unit of work. It supports teachers with their planning and ensures they make flexible adaptions to support all pupils’ needs. Throughout this, tasks are then matched to ability ensuring they are ambitious and set challenge for all. These are differentiated through level of support and key questioning.
Insight Tracker is used as summative assessment. The knowledge and skills learning goals are highlighted to identify any gaps in learning that can then be addressed and inform teachers in the following year groups.
The knowledge and skills pupils acquire through the teaching of DT at Brierley school equips them for future learning. We endeavor to enthuse pupils within DT, which as a result may support may empower them to explore a range of opportunities available to them in the wider world.
Enterprise
During Autumn Half Term 2 and Summer Half Term 2 our learning in DT is combined with our class enterprise projects for the Christmas and Summer Fayres. Each class embark on a project to design and make a product to sell at the fayre. Children apply their knowledge and skills in DT as well as developing their enterprise skills in listening, presenting, problem solving, creativity, team work, leadership, aiming high and staying positive.