Design Technology Statement of INTENT

Why do we teach this? Why do we teach it in the way we do?

At Spire Infant School we value Design Technology as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Design Technology requires children to invent, problem solve, evaluate, transfer and apply skills from other core disciplines such as Mathematics, Science and Literacy (with links to engineering and art). Design and Technology is the inspiring, rigorous and practical subject which prepares all young people to live and work in the designed and made world. We encourage children to use their creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, becoming innovators and risk takers. Design Technology encourages children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values both as individuals and as members of a team.

We aim for all pupils to:

• Be able to develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose
• Be able to generate, develop, and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches/diagrams, and pattern pieces
• Be able to select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks (for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing) with increasing accuracy
• Be able to select from and use a wider range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their functional properties and aesthetic qualities
• Be able to investigate and analyse a range of existing products
• Evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve

At Spire, our aim is to implement this INTENT through quality first Teaching & Learning

• Understand tools used for a purpose
• Construction using a range of materials

• Begin to construct horizontally, making enclosures & creating spaces
• Construct with a purpose
• Manipulate materials to achieve a planned effect
• Select tools and techniques to assemble and join
• Explore a wide variety of tools & techniques
• Adapt work where necessary

• Design a range of products with labels and materials 
• Make a product using tools and equipment
• Choose and use appropriate materials
• Investigate how mechanisms work
• Research where does food come from 
• Identify healthy and unhealthy foods

• Design a product, that is purposeful, functional and appealing
• Select and use a range of tools, materials and equipment 
• Evaluate a product against a design 
• Build stable structures
• Name the main food groups