Design and Technology at Westmorland Primary School

Design and Technology at Westmorland Primary School gives children the opportunity to become designers, inventors and engineers, equipping them with valuable life skills. All children will develop their design, making and evaluating skills through a range of engaging and purposeful Design and Technology projects. 

INTENT:
The 2014 Design and Technology National Curriculum sets out the requirements for learning across the subject. The curriculum combines skills, knowledge, concepts and values to allow children to tackle relevant and real life problems, and exercise their creativity. All children will be taught to design, make, evaluate and develop technical knowledge. 
At Westmorland Primary School we are committed to developing all children by giving MORE. Our curriculum is based around Memorable Learning, Oracy, Reading and Experiences.
We know that our children often have limited experiences due to living in an area of high deprivation. We are therefore committed to delivering a broad and rich Design and Technology curriculum, which prioritises the development of the whole child. We equip children with the skills and knowledge to excel in all areas of life – both personal and academic. We ensure that success is achievable for all, regardless of circumstance. 
Our INTENT is to ensure that all children are able to plan, make and evaluate purposeful products, and have a deep understanding of each stage of the process. Children will develop a range of practical skills that they can use independently. Oracy will be developed as children describe the process of designing and making using technical vocabulary. As children progress through the school, projects will be become more complex and independence in the designing and making process will be more evident.  We also intend to equip our children with critical thinking and problem solving skills so they can reflect on their learning and skills acquisition.

IMPLEMENTATION: 

At Westmorland Primary School, implementation of the 2014 National Curriculum for Design and Technology is delivered in a variety of ways with the MORE INTENT always in mind.
Creativity and imagination is encouraged, enabling our children to design and make products within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs and values. Where possible, this is linked with another topic, for example, designing and building a fairground ride and linking to the Science topic of Electricity. A broad range of subject knowledge is taught throughout their time at our school and links with disciplines such as mathematics, science, computing and art are certainly encouraged. Our children are encouraged to take risks, helping them to become resourceful, enterprising and capable adults. Through their continual evaluation of past and present design and technology, they begin to develop a critical understanding of their work in their daily life and the wider world. Wherever possible, lessons are mainly practical, with our children learning through their own experiences. Design and technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject, which is taught through the following five areas of learning:  
•    Food
•    Electricity
•    Structures
•    Textiles
•    Mechanisms

Our curriculum map ensures children have the opportunity to learn core skills within each of these and build on them in their subsequent year group. Our pupils have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials and resources, including materials that encourage recycling and reusing. This is supported with continuous reference to Health and Safety whilst using utensils and tools. From September 2021, our pupils will have use of a purpose built cooking room to complement and deepen their learning around food, food preparation and healthy eating. 

Our standard planning process underpins each area, which helps to focus our children’s progression from year to year. Our planning process takes our pupils on a journey through the main skills set of Design and Technology and always begins with a project title to ensure learning is purposeful.  Pupils design a product with the project title in mind and undertake lessons focusing on the skills needed to equip them for the next stage of the journey; making. Throughout the making stage, pupils embed real-life skills designed to equip them for our ever changing technological world. Finally, pupils evaluate their final product against the project title, fostering critical thinking skills.  In order for our pupils to make the maximum amount of progress in Design and Technology and allow adequate time to implement the planning process, full afternoons are timetabled for each class. 

IMPACT:
 
By the time pupils leave Westmorland Primary School, they will be equipped with a range of practical skills which they can apply to different situations in the ever changing technological world around us. 
Our curriculum is high quality and planned to demonstrate progression year on year.  It provides our pupils with skills, knowledge and vocabulary to move forward in their learning and to apply these skills in other areas of the curriculum and outside of the school environment.  Design and Technology ensures our pupils will know MORE, be able to do MORE and remember MORE through enjoyment of this very special subject.  Our planning process develops a deeper understanding of how things work in real-life situations and produces individuals who are critical thinkers and problem solvers by giving a purpose to each and every lesson.   

Westmorland Primary School measures the impact of Design and Technology through discussions during each stage of the design process with our pupils by those know them best; their class teachers and learning support assistants. With many diverse needs and abilities within our school, discussions are an excellent way of assessing skills and knowledge at the point of learning and at a level suited to the ability of the individual pupil. Additionally, class teachers measure the impact of their teaching by reflecting on the standards achieved against the planned outcomes. 
Pupils from Westmorland Primary School are our future designers and engineers as result of implementing a structured and well thought out Design and Technology curriculum.