The Southfield Designer

CURRICULUM STATEMENT

Our Design and Technology curriculum aims to inspire students to think about the important and integral role which design, and the creation of designed products, play in our society. We seek provide children with the opportunity to use their creativity and imagination to create and construct products, linked to real life contexts. Children take part in practical, creative and motivating projects that link to other areas of the curriculum but with DT principles at the heart. Children have the opportunity to experience practically so as to:

• Investigate famous designers and ideas to solve practical design problems

• Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world

• Build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users

• Critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others

• Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook

Through sequenced ideas and skills, children will experience and develop the concepts and key essentials skills of Design and Technology as they work through the exciting and innovative projects. These concepts and skills progress gradually throughout their time as Southfield Designers. Children will learn about famous designers who have influenced the world of technology and design. They will learn the disciplinary skills of what it is to be a Southfield Designer.

CURRICULUM COVERAGE

WHAT DOES DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY LOOK LIKE AT SOUTHFIELD?

At the heart of our Design and Technology curriculum is the expectation that children will develop disciplinary skills and knowledge to become designers. At the end of each unit of study, our pupils will produce a practical product. They will investigate designs, solve design problems and issues, build and create, and evaluate, exploring issues contextually.

Children will design, make and evaluate products using a range of materials and components; this includes construction materials, textiles, food mechanical components and, in Key Stage 2, they will use electrical components. Our Early Years Designers are introduced to the concepts and skills through the early learning goals, and these then gradually progress throughout their time as Southfield Designers.

The Southfield Designer will incorporate the following elements in all lessons:

Children will start each lesson with a story to place learning in context and to be meaningful. They will learn about well known designers or inventors and how they created tangible items from imagination and design.

Our curriculum has been split into three different areas of design and technology: ‘cook’, ‘sew’ and ‘build’. It is designed so that each year group will complete a unit of work in these three different areas once a year.

We have sequenced our lessons in the ‘sew’ and ‘build’ areas of study to follow a structure to enable our pupils to become familiar with, understand and practise the process of design: research and investigate, design, make, use and evaluate.

Each unit of work specifies the product the children will make, the purpose of the product and the user of the product. This specification shows children the importance of purpose and user within the design process.

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The children explore existing products and their uses, and then generate ideas and designs by creating drawings and prototypes against criteria which they create, having considered purpose, function and appeal. They then evaluate their product against these criteria, concluding the process.

The students’ understanding of key skills and concepts builds from year to year, assessing and cementing prior learning.

Our design and technology curriculum has been designed to be delivered alongside our art, science and history curricula, as parts of it directly relate to areas of knowledge which the pupils' acquire in these subjects.

Where a unit looks at concepts which are also addressed in these subjects, the design and technology unit is generally taught after units in these other disciplines. This allows the children to approach their study of design and technology with a degree of confidence and ‘expertise’ and to consolidate their knowledge by creating connections between the different disciplines.

WHAT DOES DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY LOOK LIKE AT SOUTHFIELD?

Our design and technology lessons usually take place during our ‘Themed Weeks’ of Science Week, History Week, Geography Week and Healthy Lifestyles Week, depending on the activity.

Two different ‘aspects’ of design are interwoven into the three areas of study (cook, sew and build): the environment and sustainability, and enterprise and innovation

These ‘aspects’ acknowledge enduring and contemporary concerns of modern design. Each unit specifies the concepts and skills which our pupils are expected to learn over the course of a unit. These concepts and skills progress gradually throughout the course of their time as Southfield Designers.

Cook: When cooking, our children learn to cook from recipes which gradually build basic culinary skills, culminating in year six with the creation of a mezze-style meal requiring the pupils to produce various small dishes. Whilst studying these practical skills, they learn about concepts relating to food such as nutrition, seasonality, food production, transportation and food from different cultures.

Sew: When sewing, our children practise using fabric and thread to learn basic sewing techniques to create objects which demonstrate embroidery, appliqué, weaving and plaiting. Concepts such as the properties and creation of different fabrics, fast fashion, industrialisation, waste, recycling and pollution are interwoven into these activities.

Build: When building, our children learn about the creation of structures and mechanical and electrical devices to create products such as cars, moving cards, toys and books. Once again, the practical process of designing and creating a product is interleaved with learning about concepts which have a bearing on what the students make.

HOW OUR 4 CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES ARE REALISED AT SOUTHFIELD

Story Centred Knowledge Rich

Children begin each project with a story linked to a themed week, product or a designer, or a problem that needs designers to solve, closely linked to the purpose of the project.

A picture or an actual product may be the starting point of the project; this would be put into context and used to tell a story.

Units are linked to other curriculum areas of study, for example, in Science, Electricity links to making small toy cars and Materials links to cushions. In History, Baghdad 900 CE links to the making of pitta bread

Children are immersed in the language and knowledge of design and construction over the range of Design and Technology areas: Textiles, Food and Nutrition and Mechanics. Using knowledge of designers and technological concepts, they weave in areas from other curriculum subjects.

The structure of the planning allows progression in Design and Technology and encourages children to:

Develop, plan and communicate ideas

In this area, pupils generate, develop and explain ideas for a product by collecting and using information from a number of sources, including ICT, advertisements and concrete materials (such as similar products) to draw inspiration from. They are given the opportunity to disassemble and investigate everyday objects in order to ascertain how they work. Pupils then use this knowledge to create their own unique selling point for their product, finding ways to add a unique element to an otherwise well known item.

Work with tools, equipment, materials and components to make quality products

Pupils learn about the different tools and techniques that can be used when making their product. They evaluate them in order to select the appropriate tools needed for creating their product. They measure, mark, cut out and shape a range of materials and then assemble, join and combine these components with accuracy.

Evaluate Process and Products

After inventing their own versions of products, the pupils reflect on their progress by identifying ways that they could improve and enhance their items. Where applicable, they also test their effectiveness to offer alternative production solutions to tackle issues that have come to light after product creation.

HOW OUR 4 CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES ARE REALISED AT SOUTHFIELD

Contextualised: Personal Growth:

Design and Technology is weaved into our curriculum themed weeks. For example, the children complete the ‘cook’ element of this curriculum in our ‘Healthy Lifestyles Week’. They may then make a garment from the ‘sew’ unit during History week or design a pulling and pushing mechanism from the ‘build’ unit in Science Week.

Our curriculum allows children to become problem solvers and think of creative ways to overcome issues whilst designing a product. The children are further challenged by having to create these products contextually, Roman soldier.

Our T.R.U.E values are embedded in the activities the children complete. The children have to trust one another, respect opinions and work together in order to get the best outcome possible.

In this subject, pupils are given the opportunity to take ownership of a project - from the designing of it, to the making of it and then evaluating it. Their ideas come to life through their creativity and self expression. Our school motto ‘Ex Corde Vita’ (out of the heart springs life), is never more evident then when these products come to fruition, and we can see all of the care and effort that has gone into the making of these products.

A culmination of not only their knowledge and skills, but their care and effort, develop the Southfield Designer, with children using the skills and knowledge accumulated to produce projects at home.

Each Year group showcases their products at the end of the unit, further instilling their confidence in themselves and their ideas.

ASSESSMENT AND PROGRESSION

Children are assessed throughout the project using a number of Rosenshine’s principles including:

• Talk tasks

• Group presentations

• Questioning by the adult and other groups

• Discussions of techniques and skills children have used

• Quizzes

• Group and individual evaluations: children evaluate how well their product works in relation to the purpose and user

• Once the project is complete the teacher will assess the children against the objectives for the project and identify children who need support and challenge in the next project