Design and Technology at Stondon Lower
Design and Technology prepares our children to deal with our rapidly changing world. It encourages pupils to become independent, creative problem solvers and thinkers as individuals and as part of a team. Design and technology, enables them to identify needs and opportunities and to respond to them by developing a range of ideas and by making products and systems. Through the study of Design and Technology, they combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, as well as allowing them to reflect on and evaluate past and present technology, its uses and impacts.
Intent
We believe that design technology at Stondon Lower School, encourages our pupils to become creative and independent in their thinking. Exploring and comparing products and designing and making, are all skills which will help to prepare our pupils for futures as designers, engineers, technologists and innovators in our ever changing world. Pupils will be taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to communicate their design, to make, explore their ideas and product and then to make further changes, actively reflecting and adapting.
Implementation
We achieve the implementation of Design and Technology at Stondon Lower School, by pupils being taught through designing and making, to design, generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas. This is encouraged through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional and exploded diagram and pattern pieces along with using a wider range of tools and equipment with greater accuracy. Through evaluation, they will learn to investigate and analyse a range of existing products, their ideas and products against their own design criteria along with considering the views of others on how to improve their work. Throughout both key stages, pupils will begin to understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world, both past and present therefore developing and broadening their understanding of design and technology, its impact on individuals, society and the environment, and the responsibilities of designers, engineers and technologists on our world today.
Cooking and Nutrition
Through Cooking and Nutrition in Key Stage 1, we intend to learn the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes and to understand where food comes from. In Key Stage 2 we will then apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet, prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques and understanding seasonality. We will also learn where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed. All of these skills will provide our pupils with a sound understanding of the basics of nutrition and cooking to help prepare them for greater independence and an adult life.
Impact
Assessment of children's learning in Design Technology is an ongoing monitoring of children's understanding, knowledge and skills throughout the lessons, with termly assessments in target tracker. Assessments are then used to inform, support and challenge our pupils.
We aim to ensure our pupils:
• develop the creative, technical and practical knowledge needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world
• build and apply a their knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality products for a wide range of users and 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, designing and making a range of products.
We will encourage our learners to take risks, become resourceful, innovative and enterprising. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they will develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world.