Design & Technology

Home / Curriculum / Design & Technology

Design & Technology Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Curriculum Lead Teacher: Mr Howes

Design and Technology

“And he has filled them with the spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills”

Exodus 35:31

Intent

At Saint Gabriel’s we believe that the planning and teaching of Design and Technology is an essential part of the curriculum. We believe that it should provide children with a real-life context for learning. Our aim is to allow children to aspire to be more, creating opportunities for them in the wider world and providing them with invaluable life skills as well as the understanding of how to utilise them best. Through the Design and Technology curriculum, children should be inspired by engineers, designers, chefs and architects to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products with a real-life purpose.

Implementation

In partnership with the DT association, we at Saint Gabriel’s plan exciting projects linked to other curriculum topics from a range of disciplines including structures, levers, axels, textiles and cookery. All teaching of Design and Technology follows the design, make and evaluate cycle and each stage of a project is rooted in technical knowledge. The design process is framed in real-life, relevant contexts that are intended to give meaning to the learning with a specific design criteria. While making, children are given choices and a range of materials and tools to choose freely from. When evaluating, children will be able to do so against the criteria they were provided with. Using technical knowledge and vocabulary, each stage is given equal weight within a project, and clear progression should be evident as children progress through the key stages.

Impact

Through study of the DT curriculum, children have developed further confidence in the use of a range of skills and tools. The skills and attributes they have developed will be useful to them beyond primary school, and even into adulthood. Staff have become more proficient and developed further confidence in their ability to plan and deliver exciting and beneficial DT lessons, ensuring even better outcomes for children.