Intent

At Hylton Castle we firmly believe that a high-quality DT curriculum makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, welfare and well-being of the nation. Therefore, our design and technology curriculum makes the purpose and relevance of this subject clear and allows them to see the value of DT in the wider world (real aims, real purpose).  The subject encourages children to become autonomous and creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team. We believe that the best way to achieve this is through a hands-on, practical approach equipping them with the skills, knowledge and understanding that they can apply in real life.  Throughout our children’s time in our school, we provide the opportunities for them to design and make a range of products for a range of purposes in our aim to broaden their understanding of DT. We also believe that our children need to see how design and technology links to other curriculum areas. Making links to Science, DT and Computing where relevant.

Implementation

• A cycle of lessons for each area of D.T, which carefully plans for progression and depth.
• Teach a progressive curriculum which builds upon learning from previous years and is centred on the key areas of mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems, structures and food.
• All children are encouraged to develop and use a range of skills including research, explore, design, make and evaluate, as well as being encouraged to question the world around them and become independent learners in exploring possible answers for their design based questions.
• A knowledge organiser which outlines knowledge all children must master.
•  Specialist vocabulary for topics is taught and built up, and effective questioning to communicate ideas is encouraged.
• Plan and deliver a purposeful unit where children’s end product is meaningful to the wider world.
• Teachers use assessment for learning to tailor lessons around our children and help us plan for next steps.
• Maintain a high level of subject knowledge of D.T in our school by regular training and professional development.
• Subject management monitors equipped and resources needed for teaching each area of D.T.
• Regular monitoring is used to check children’s understand and apply key principles within their work.
•  In our school we have a rigorous monitoring process which is kept up to date and works towards our school improvement plan.

Impact

Children enjoy and are enthusiastic about D.T in our school.  There is a clear progression of children’s work and teachers’ expectations in our school.  Children’s work shows a range of topics and evidence of the curriculum coverage for all D.T topics. Children are able to retain prior-learning and explicitly make connections between what they have previously learned and what they are currently learning. This is evidenced through regular pupil voice, monitoring and looking at outcomes which are measured against our age-based progression grids.  Feedback from teachers has impact on our pupils, often with next step questions to push learning on. Standards in D.T at the end of the key stages are good and issues arising are addressed effectively in school. SLT are kept up to date with developments in the way D.T is ran in our school with subject reports, action plans and review meetings.