Design and Technology- Subject Leader Mrs Clode

Approaches to learning: Design and Technology

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” Benjamin Franklin.

At Chandlers Ford Infant School Design and Technology is a vital component of our curriculum which brings learning to life. It is a subject area that gives all children the opportunity to design and construct but it also encourages them to become independent, creative problem-solvers and thinkers. Design and Technology prepares children to deal with tomorrow's rapidly changing world and it helps them to become astute and informed future consumers and potential innovators.

The Design and Technology experiences that the children undertake at our school have been carefully designed. Each project ensures that the children engage in authentic problems which have a clear purpose, user and functionality. We know that children love making decisions for themselves and learning through practical experiences. We ask our children to make their own design decisions and we encourage them to be innovative and original in their thinking;creating products that they can see, touch and even taste. Each project has strong links to the topics being covered in class and also draws upon many other areas of the curriculum including science, maths, literacy and art. Whenever possible we try to take our learning outside and this year we created a whole school weather station where every class investigated, designed, made and evaluated a piece of equipment that could measure the weather.

During their time at Chandlers Ford Infant school all children will get to acquire and practically apply their knowledge and understanding of materials and components, mechanisms and structures, existing products and health and safety.

In KS1 our children are taught to:

• Use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
• develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks successfully in an increasingly technological world
• build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes for a wide range of users
• critique, evaluate and test their ideas and product and the work of other
• understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook

Each project develops a progression of skills these are:

• Technical knowledge
• Designing
• Making
• Evaluating
• In addition to this each year group undertakes a cooking and nutrition project

Here are some web sites you might like to use at home:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/do-you-know

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/bitz-and-bob

https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/subjects/zb9d7ty

https://www.data.org.uk/

https://www.stem.org.uk/audience/primary