Design and Technology at Foxhill
Mrs Thomason - DT Leader
'At Foxhill Primary, Design Technology opens up a world of creativity and problem-solving for our children. As DT lead, I love seeing pupils' ideas come to life, from sketching designs, creating food from different cultures, to building and refining their projects. DT encourages hands-on learning, teamwork, and critical thinking. It’s inspiring to watch their creativity flourish!'
Design Technology in Action
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![IMG_1478[1]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/02264e_a3eef2bb6a42487cae4f13a2d906db60~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_1307,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/02264e_a3eef2bb6a42487cae4f13a2d906db60~mv2.jpg)
![IMG_1213[1]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/02264e_228fc3f285774453819f3bea2c8ab490~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_980,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/02264e_228fc3f285774453819f3bea2c8ab490~mv2.jpg)
![IMG_1467[1]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/02264e_c17c15a9cad64f198a58ce3b25dc602e~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_1307,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/02264e_c17c15a9cad64f198a58ce3b25dc602e~mv2.jpg)
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Intent
IMPLEMENTATION
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At Foxhill Primary, we are DESIGNERS. We want our children to love design technology. We want them to feel ambitious and feel able to access roles as architects, graphic designers, chefs or carpenters.
Design and Technology is dynamic and multidimensional. It is our intention that our DT curriculum will provide opportunities to solve real and relevant problems, allowing our pupils to develop essential everyday skills and unlock their potential to be the designers and innovators of tomorrow. The DT curriculum will encourage children to learn, think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as an individual and as part of a team.
Design and Technology will allow all pupils to put their learning from other areas of the curriculum into practice, and will work to enhance and deepen their understanding of those areas, including maths, computing, science, and art.
Foxhill pupils will learn about cooking, food and nutrition, ensuring that they acquire the fundamental life skills in order to be able to feed themselves healthily and independently, whilst learning about where food comes from, therefore making connections with their geographical and scientific knowledge.
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Implementation
The CUSP Design and Technology curriculum is organised into blocks with each block covering a particular set of disciplines, including food and nutrition, mechanisms, structures, systems, electrical systems, understanding materials and textiles.
In addition to the core knowledge required to be successful within each discipline, the curriculum outlines key aspects of development in the Working as a Designer section. Each module will focus on promoting different aspects of these competencies. This will support teachers in understanding pupils’ progress as designers more broadly, as well as how successfully they are acquiring the taught knowledge and skills.
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Children with Special Education Needs will have the curriculum adapted according to their needs and in consultation with SENDCO where needed.
Design and Technology Skills
Early Years
Design and Technology Long Term Plan
OVERVIEW OF KNOWLEDGE
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The overview provides a list of the expected outcomes. Each block provides details of the design knowledge and skills pupils will be expected to have acquired. It includes detailed explanations of the core knowledge covered in each block.
RETRIEVAL PRACTISE​
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Retrieval practise is planned into the curriculum through spaced learning and as part of considered task design by the class teacher.
KNOWLEDGE NOTES
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Knowledge notes focus pupils’ working memory to the key questions that may be asked at the end of the lesson. This helps to reduce cognitive load.
INCLUSION
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ALL pupils will take part in all the lesson sequences in DT, but we need to be clear about the critical core content for pupils with SEND.
As part of the planning and preparation for the delivery of each block, teachers will need to consider how specific activities, or the delivery, may need to be adjusted to ensure that pupils with SEND are able to access the materials and participate fully in the lesson.
Pupils with language and communication difficulties (including those with ASD) may need additional visual prompts to help them understand what is expected of them. The task could be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks and individual task boards used to demonstrate these.
Some pupils may have sensory sensitivities. For those pupils, adjustments may need to be made in order for them to access materials.
Pupils who have difficulties with tasks requiring fine motor skills may need appropriate adjustments to be made to enable them to access the task and / or in order to keep them safe.
Knowledge notes will also be chunked to ensure learners understand key content.
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VOCABULARY
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The units are supported by vocabulary modules which provide both resources for teaching and learning vital vocabulary and provide teachers with Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary.
We aim to provide a high challenge with low threat culture and put no ceiling on any child’s learning, instead providing the right scaffolding for each child for them to achieve.
IMPACT
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The impact of this curriculum design will lead to outstanding progress over time across key stages relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills.
Children will therefore be expected to leave Foxhill reaching at least age related expectations for Design and Technology. Our Design and Technology curriculum will also lead pupils to be enthusiastic learners, evidenced in a range of ways, including pupil voice and their work.
HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT THE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED?
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The assessment of pupils is formative and is based on pupil outcomes and questioning from each lesson. The following can be used to assess pupils’ knowledge and application of skills and techniques as well as their understanding and use of relevant vocabulary.
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Expectations for each block are made explicit and outcomes are specified for each lesson.
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The Questions for assessment section in each block provides specific questions to be used with pupils to elicit their level of understanding of tools, techniques and effects, e.g. How have the properties of the cotton changed? Is the cotton now more or less functional?
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Oracy and Vocabulary tasks provide ample opportunities for teachers to evaluate pupils’ ability to: use the language of design and technology effectively;
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explain techniques, skills and processes;
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evaluate their own and others’ work.
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A vocabulary quiz provides an opportunity for teachers to assess pupils’ deeper understanding and application of the technical vocabulary covered in the block.
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Exemplification is available and can be used to inform assessment of pupil outcomes and to support teachers in developing their own subject knowledge. They demonstrate the expected standard against which teachers can assess pupils’ work.
The best form of assessment in design and technology is at the point of delivery, while pupils are working. This helps us to understand pupils’ development as designers, rather than their ability to produce a prescribed end outcome. By encouraging pupils to articulate their thinking and reflections, we can understand which aspects of design and technology may require additional teaching and reshape teaching to support this.
QUESTIONS FOR ASSESSMENT
A series of self evaluation questions are provided for each unit
PUPIL BOOK STUDY TELLS US:
1. What impact is our CURRICULUM having?
What effect is the curriculum architecture having?
2. Does teaching support LONG-TERM LEARNING?
Is the evidence-led practice really being deployed at a classroom level, or is it superficial?
3. Do tasks enable pupils to THINK HARD and CREATE LONG-TERM MEMORY?How impactful are tasks, and do they help pupils to think hard and generate learning?