Design & Technology

Hampreston School offers a coherently planned sequence of lessons to help teachers ensure they have progressively covered the knowledge, understanding and skills required in the National Curriculum. We aim to inspire children through a broad range of practical experiences to create innovative designs which solve real and relevant problems within a variety of different contexts. The iterative design process is fundamental and runs throughout the work. This iterative process encourages children to identify real and relevant problems, critically evaluate existing products and then take risks and innovate when designing and creating solutions to the problems. As part of the iterative process, time is built in to reflect, evaluate and improve on prototypes using design criteria throughout to support this process.

Opportunities are provided for children to evaluate key events and individuals who have helped shape the world, showing the real impact of design and technology on the wider environment and helping to inspire children to become the next generation of innovators.

Design and Technology skills and understanding are built into lessons, following an iterative process. However, this is not to say that this structure should be followed rigidly: it allows for the revision of ideas to become part of good practice and ultimately helps to build a depth to children's understanding. Through revisiting and consolidating skills, our lesson plans and resources help children build on prior knowledge alongside introducing new skills, knowledge and challenge. We use DATA (Design And Technology Association) Projects on a Page to ensure knowledge and skills are being built upon in each of the main areas: Structures, Mechanisms, The revision and introduction of key vocabulary is built into each lesson. This vocabulary is then included in display materials and additional resources to ensure that children are allowed opportunities to repeat and revise this knowledge. Adult guides and accurate design and technology subject knowledge are always provided within lessons to allow the teacher and adults working in those lessons to feel confident and supported with the skills and knowledge that they are teaching.

Through these lessons, we intend to inspire pupils and practitioners to develop a love of Design and Technology and see how it has helped shaped the ever-evolving technological world they live in.

The impact of using the full range of resources, including display materials, will be seen across the school with an increase in the profile of Design and Technology. The learning environment across the school will be more consistent with design and technology technical vocabulary displayed, spoken and used by all learners. Whole-school and parental engagement will be improved through the use of design and technology-specific home learning tasks and opportunities suggested in lessons and overviews for wider learning.

We want to ensure that Design and Technology is loved by teachers and pupils across school, therefore encouraging them to want to continue building on this wealth of skills and understanding, now and in the future. Impact can also be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons.