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Design & Technology

At Blaydon West Primary School, we place a great emphasis on the importance of Design and Technology within our curriculum. Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject which contributes to the creativity and imagination of our pupils and brings learning to life. It is also motivating context for discovering science, art, history and computing, which helps to provide a firm basis for later learning in the subject and a platform for developing skills in literacy and numeracy.

The Design and Technology subject leader is responsible for the curriculum design, delivery and impact in this subject. This includes regularly reviews to ensure that it is being implemented well and coverage and breadth and balance, is adequate.

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in design and technology we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school:

  • Pupils progressively develop skills and knowledge from Year 1-6 and throughout a topic.
  • A whole-school overview has been implemented to ensure coverage of the three key design and technology strands: cooking and nutrition; structures (construction and the built environment); and product design (food, textiles, mechanisms, electrical control).
  • The key areas of structures, mechanism, cooking and nutrition and textiles are revisited at least three times across Year 1-6 (electrical component based projects are covered in Years 5 and 6 to allow opportunities for progression following the children’s electricity topic in Year 4 science). This ensures each of the areas is covered in depth and is built upon progressively when re-visited.
  • Teachers plan lessons for their class using a progression of knowledge and skills document relevant to their year group and topics.
  • We provide a variety of opportunities for learning inside and outside the classroom. Creating community links and making use of our school allotment are essential to our design and technology curriculum. It is crucial that children observe and immerse themselves in their local environment and apply their learning practically to real-life situations, particularly sustainability given our current climate.
  • Opportunities for pupils to understand and appreciate the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and of others have been created i.e. “Tyneside Traditions” (cooking and nutrition); “BrilliantBridges” (structures).
  • Lessons are linked to other areas of the curriculum where appropriate i.e. science ,computing, history and geography, to ensure cross curricular learning.
  • Strong cross-curricular links to science have been established in order to strengthen standalone science topics as well as to provide children with the opportunity to apply their skills in a different context i.e. electricity.
  • Teachers present key knowledge and vocabulary clearly, and effectively model and teach skills.
  • Lessons are exciting and engaging and where possible are relevant and meaningful to the children of Blaydon West.
  • Misconceptions are addressed through marking, verbal feedback, adapting planning.
  • CPD is used to support teacher knowledge and pedagogy.
  • Activities such as clubs, workshops, and whole –school enterprise weeks are regularly organised in order to expose children to experts/professionals in STEM.
  • Skills and knowledge will be celebrated in school through displays and project exhibitions.

In our Early Years Foundation Stage, we aim to:

  • Guide children to make sense of their physical world and their community
  • Explore, observe and find out about people, places and the environment

In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, children study the National Curriculum for Geography and we aim to:

  • To inspire pupils’ curiosity to discover more about the world around them
  • To enable children to know about the location of the world’s continents, countries, cities, seas and oceans.
  • To develop in children the skills of collecting, interpreting and analysing a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information.
  • To help children understand how the human and physical features of a place shapes its location and can change over time