Our Design & Technology Curriculum
- Intent
- Implementation
- Impact
The Design and Technology curriculum at Green Lane Infant School aims to provide all children with a broad and balanced curriculum which prepares them for life beyond education. They are encouraged to use their creativity and imagination, to design and make products. Design and Technology encourages our children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values both as individuals and collaboratively.
“Design is thinking made visual” Saul Bass
As well as following the National Curriculum breadth of study for design and technology, we use the Chris Quigley structure which encompasses three threshold concepts to implement a coherently planned design and technology curriculum underpinned by our drivers. These threshold concepts are:
- Mastering practical skills
- Design, make, evaluate and improve
- Take inspiration from design throughout history
- Knowledge, skills and understanding are progressively built upon through each of the areas of experience of designing, making, evaluate, technical knowledge and cooking and nutrition. Within each discipline this has been provided through gradually extending the breadth of content, increasing the depth of knowledge and understanding and focusing on improving the quality of responses and outcomes.
Milestones define the standards for the threshold concepts and provide clarity about what is to be learnt in each Key Stage.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
Summative assessing of children’s understanding of topic (including vocabulary) using the milestones created by Chris Quigley
- Images and videos of the children’s practical learning including seesaw
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice)
- Annual reporting to parents of standards across the curriculum
Assessments of finished pieces of work
Design and Technology at Home
- Future Aspirations
- Books to Read Together
- Websites and Places to Visit
With ongoing advancements in technology happening all the time, jobs within this field are always developing. You could be an engineer, a plumber, an architect, a prop designer, a mechanic, a carpenter…and who knows what design and technology careers there may be in the future!
Here is a link to BBC Bitesize where you can find out about some jobs that use D+T.
Andrea Beaty’s inspiring STEM stories
(science, technology, engineering and maths) stories of resilience encourage you to follow your dreams.
The Most Magnificent Thing
Follow along the hero’s journey as she uses her creativity and perseverance to build her design.
How Things Work
There are lots of great books that let you take a look inside how everyday objects work.
Local Places to Visit
There are many places, local to Leicester which you could visit with your child to develop their knowledge and enthusiasm for design and technology.
The National Space Centre is a great place to see how design and technology advancements have enabled space exploration.
https://www.spacecentre.co.uk/
At Abbey Pumping Station, you can see how technology works and get involved in the hands-on exhibits.
https://www.abbeypumpingstation.org/
At the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, there are lots of different collections of amazing products throughout history. https://www.leicestermuseums.org/leicester-museum-art-gallery/
At the Great Central Railway, you can learn about steam technology and take a ride on the steam trains. https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/
Websites to visit to support your child
Oak National Academy has been funded by the Department for Education. On here, you can find sequences of lessons.
Template Maker gives you instructions for how to make a wide range of products using paper.
CBBC Recipes has a range of videos to help you get cooking as a family. Cooking is a great way to involve your child in design and technology at home.
Lego Magazine You can sign up to receive a free magazine with lots of inspiring build ideas.
Brickit is an amazing free app where you can scan a pile of mixed Lego and it will give you suggestions of what to build with step by step instructions.