Design and Technology

At The Willow Primary School we want our children to love Design and Technology.  Design and Technology is dynamic and multidimensional and our D&T curriculum will provide opportunities for children to solve real and relevant problems, allowing them to develop essential everyday skills and unlock their potential to be the designers and innovators of tomorrow. The D&T curriculum will encourage children to learn, think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as an individual and as part of a team. Design and Technology will allow all Willow pupils to put their learning from other areas of the curriculum into practice and will work to enhance and deepen their understanding of those areas, including Maths, Computing, Science, and Art. Willow pupils will learn about cooking, food and nutrition, ensuring that they acquire the fundamental life skills in order to be able to feed themselves healthily and independently, whilst learning about where food comes from, therefore making connections with their geographical and scientific knowledge.

We Ensure that Children:

• Use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups.
• Generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches.
• Select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing], accurately.
• Select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their functional properties and aesthetic qualities.
• 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 their work.
• Understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world.
• Apply their understanding of how to strengthen, stiffen and reinforce more complex structures.
• Understand and use mechanical systems in their products [for example, levers and linkages].
• Understand and use electrical systems in their products [for example, series circuits].
• Cooking and Nutrition: Understand and apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet.
• Cooking and Nutrition: Prepare and cook a variety of fruit and vegetable smoothies.

Whole School Design and Technology Map