‘Turn your ideas into reality.’ – Titas Paul 

Aston Clinton School offers an inspiring progression of carefully planned Design Technology lessons to ensure that our pupils cover the objectives and concepts required in the National Curriculum and build on skills, year on year. Our aim is to ensure that children leave our school with a range of practical life skills; learn how to solve real problems; understand the effect of products on people and the environment and most of all recognise and develop their own creativity. 

Design: 

Children design a variety of products with a purpose and an intended user in mind. They will research and think about existing products that allow them to develop a design criterion to inform other of their design. When designing a product, children will ensure that it is functional, appealing and fit-for purpose. Planning should be through age appropriate formats such as; sketches, patterns, template, prototypes and communicating ideas verbally. The use of technology will also be used to support the design of product fit for purpose. 

Make:

 Whilst making, children will be given a wide range of tools, materials and components including textiles, construction equipment and ingredients. They build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills (ie. cutting, shaping, joining and finishing) in order to make high-quality prototypes and products for a range of users. Staff will discuss and build on the skills from previous years and introduce new skills to support the children’s creativity and product making. The children are encouraged to test and think about any adaptations they may need to make to their existing product. 

Evaluation: 

The children at Aston Clinton understand and learn the criteria that is needed to make their product. They develop the skills in being critical, using this skill to support them when testing and making changes to their products. Children will use their knowledge of the criteria and being critical to support others in the class by making recommendations for their products. Throughout the design, make and evaluate process children will analyse a range of existing products to understand how key products and ideas have shaped design and technology globally. Pupils will learn how to evaluate their own design criteria, considering the views of others in order to improve their work.

Each year, all children will complete one food related unit of work. We believe that instilling a love of cooking in children will open a door to one of the great expressions of human creativity. Learning about the principles of nutrition and healthy eating along with learning how to cook is a crucial life skill that will enable children to feed themselves and others now and in later life. Through food we are also able to explore other countries and their cultures. We are very proud to have been about to incorporate our outdoor learning curriculum into our DT curriculum. Through growing out own produce our children have had the unique opportunity to explore what 'from farm to fork' really means"

Linking Design Technology with other curriculum areas really brings learning to life. We provide exciting projects which allow opportunities for children to develop not only their designing and making skills but also incorporate English, maths, art, computing and science. For example, children develop their knowledge and understanding of properties of materials which helps in science, and the practice of measuring accurately helps in maths.  A new addition to our curriculum,  linking DT and outdoor learning is our summer construction projects. Our outdoor area will be transformed with miniature structures and play equipment as the children learn how to design, make and evaluate their joining and construction projects.

Knowledge organisers are being reviewed and will outline the key concepts and vocabulary that all children should aim to master. A cycle of lessons is created which carefully plan for progression and depth of knowledge over the course of a particular topic. Key facts are explained to the pupils during high quality lesson inputs and are reinforced through a combination of revisiting through teaching and exploring and demonstrating in independent work. 

During DT lessons, teachers use questioning to assess children’s understanding of what has been taught throughout the lesson and any misconceptions are acknowledged, addressed and explained. In DT lessons, many cross-curricular links are observed. For example: Maths links, during cooking topics, where children are measuring out ingredients, as well as calculating the quantities of different recipes. Instructions are often created as part of the ‘design’ phase, which has a direct link to English. Science knowledge is practiced when children are creating products that contain electrical components. 

Assessment of children's learning in Design Technology is an ongoing monitoring of children's understanding, knowledge and skills by the class teacher throughout lessons. This assessment is then used to make adjustments to support and challenge children. 

We ensure that children develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world. Pupils 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 and critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others. 

Overviews and Sample Knowledge Organisers

THIS SECTION IS CURRENTLY UNDER REVIEW

For more details about your child's learning, please use the following link to the year group learning pages.