Intent

At Wittering Primary School, we aim to provide our children with enriching opportunities, skills and knowledge to become confident and creative designers and creators.  Through quality first teaching and engaging experiences our children will develop a love of design and technology.  Our design curriculum will enable our children to access the local environment to enhance their understanding of the wider world and to gain access to local resources and develop respect, compassion and curiosity for their locality.   Our children will develop resilience and aspiration for their own achievements.

Our unique curriculum will be progressive and will have well designed and planned lessons offering our children a variety of skills that will progressively cover the knowledge and understanding as the National Curriculum objectives aim to achieve.  We aim to inspire our children through a range of engaging practical learning experiences with access to specialists in our wider community (such as RAF and Army personnel) and in school resources.  Each unit will allow the children the opportunity to plan, design, make and evaluate existing products and those of their own.  They will be provided with the opportunity to overcome problems and take appropriate risks to create and innovate new products.  Pupils will be able to look at key designers and inventors, both locally and historically across the world, who have shaped the world we live in today and see that their innovations can continue to develop the world in which they live.

Implementation

The National Curriculum objectives for skills, knowledge and understanding are explicitly covered in the planning of each unit.  Teachers have the abilities and knowledge to follow the ideas of children and adapt lessons to incorporate their ideas, designs, and conjectures in order to prove, disprove and challenge their thought process building a greater depth of understanding in our pupils. 

Our pupils will be inspired to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding and be encouraged to step out of their comfort zone to develop and create new inventions.  Vocabulary will be displayed, used and spoken by all pupils.  We will have the involvement of our wider community encompassing the key skills from designers, builders of structures, creators of technologies, chefs and sewers to support and improve the key skills being taught from EYFS to Key Stage Two.

In the EYFS there are many opportunities created through the careful implementation of the Key Areas of Learning, for example children will use junk modeling, baking and lacing.

Throughout key stage one and key stage two the children will access units of sewing, cooking, building structures, wheels and axles, pneumatics and moving parts.  In upper key stage two the children will use microbits and crumble kits to power or enhance the products the make.

All units will encompass our key values; resilience, responsibility, equality, community, creativity and belonging.  Through rigorous planning, planning our pupils will learn to be responsible citizens who carefully resource their own creations.  They will take responsibility for their local environment and the impact their creations may have upon it.  Children at Wittering will know how to use their own creativity and that inspired by the work of others to influence their own designs, taking risks and overcoming challenges as they go.  Our curriculum will teach our children about the inequalities that some people may face and how we can overcome these in the future together as a community.

Impact

The impact of our DT curriculum will be measured through teacher assessment, pupil voice, lesson observations, diary scrutiny and collection of children’s work. Classroom displays of children’s work and pupil’s opinions will demonstrate their enthusiasm for learning DT skills.  Evidence collected will show that units across different year groups will consolidate and build on prior knowledge while developing new skills and understanding.  Through the learning of our rich DT curriculum, children will be able to make links between their lives and those of others.  They will share their knowledge and demonstrate skills outlined in the progression for DT document.  They will exude a love of their design and technology lessons and the learning that takes place.