Design and Technology at Bishopthorpe Infant School

Design and Technology - Nicola Hone

At Bishopthorpe Infant School, we aim to enable our children to feel confident when using design and technology methods and processes. Design and Technology is a practical subject in which pupils have the experience of designing, making and evaluating products.  Design and Technology encourages children to think about products in the world around them and question how and why things work the way they do. Through Design and Technology, our children become more focused on what makes a successful product and more imaginative when thinking about how a product could be made or improved.

Intent

The National Curriculum states that Design and Technology enables pupils to, ‘Learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens.’

We aim to achieve this with a Design and Technology curriculum which encourages pupils to develop their creative, technical and practical expertise, enabling them to perform everyday tasks with confidence. Our Design and Technology curriculum is designed to provide children with many opportunities for learning through doing and practical, hands-on experiences. We believe that by developing this, we can contribute to the quality of our children’s lives, both within and beyond school. Fostering their enthusiasm for designing, making, modifying and inventing products. This will enable them, one day, to contribute to our increasingly technological world.

Implementation

Our DT curriculum has been carefully planned in accordance with the Early Years Framework and The National Curriculum to follow a three year rolling programme, where children develop their skills and expertise over time. The learning opportunities, technical vocabulary and skills progression for each year group will ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills.

We aim to achieve this by:

• Teaching four DT topics a year, focusing on :construction/structures, mechanisms, food & nutrition and textiles;
• Encouraging confidence and perseverance whilst nurturing a sense of pride and enjoyment in their work;
• Learning about and exploring a range of materials, techniques, tools and technical methods such as: levers, sliders, sewing and joining;
• Providing opportunities for all children to practise skills and techniques in continuous provision;
• Linking DT to other curriculum areas through our whole school three year rolling programme. E.g. looking at mechanisms (wheels & axles) to design and make a vehicle that can move during our ‘Hop On Board’ topic;  
• Developing an understanding of the designing and making process and the need to evaluate existing ideas and products;
• Encouraging the children to talk about both their own and pre-existing products when evaluating;
• Providing an environment in which children can work safely and be taught how to use certain tools correctly; and
• Developing DT vocabulary through use of common words and phrases relating to topics.

Impact

At Bishopthorpe Infant School, we believe that our Design and Technology curriculum will give our children a strong foundation of key skills and knowledge in DT. This will enable them to develop the confidence and creativity to become the designers of products in our technological world. Through our broad and balanced three year curriculum, our children are given the opportunities to explore, discover and develop their skills through practical, hands-on experience, where they evaluate and improve models, products and designs.

Our children are the future and we believe that our carefully planned curriculum will help to inspire the future designers and innovators.

Christmas Enterprise Week 

Every year the children take part in a Christmas Enterprise Week where each class designs and makes a product before selling them to parents. This year we raised over £500! Thank you to everyone who spent so generously. The children have already had lots of ideas about what they would like to spend their profits on. 

Clubs 

We are very lucky to have Miss Addy and Miss Ray who each run clubs supporting the Design Technology curriculum. Each term a different year group is given the opportunity to take part in an Art and Craft Club run by Miss Addy. This is a super opportunity to explore different techniques and learn new skills. Miss Ray runs a Health and Well-Being club which often gives the children opportunities to learn about healthy eating as well as preparing and cooking food. If you would like your child to take part, please keep a look out the letter which will be sent home a few weeks before the club is due to start.