DT 3Is

Throckley Primary School Design and Technology: Intent, Implementation and Impact Intent At Throckley Primary School, we are fully committed to providing children with an enriching, relevant and purposeful DT curriculum which fully prepares pupils for their future life and career beyond school. In a rapidly changing world, technology must be embraced; we seek to ensure children are collaborative and adaptive learners who can solve real life problems through drawing upon their rich skillset. We firmly believe that DT inspires children to think independently, innovatively and develop creative, procedural and technical understanding.

Our DT curriculum is intertwined with our school’s key concepts of belonging, choice and influence; this is embedded by the study of significant people and rich stories. Amalgamated, these areas promote aspirational learners at Throckley Primary School with a strong selfawareness.

Throckley Primary School’s curriculum is underpinned by our three curriculum drivers. By understanding our place in the world, pupils explore how design and technology is present in their lives and across the world as they will be exposed to various significant, real-life projects which have resulted in products we are familiar with. Children will explore key designers and inventors – both locally and globally – to discover how real-world problems are solved with products and how these are meaningful to them. DT provides children with an opportunity to explore the world around them and unearth how many products are the result of previous problems thereby allowing the children to broaden their horizons. By participating in practical activities with a range of media, children can develop an appreciation for being innovative and seeking solutions to their own problems as future designers. We hope to inspire our pupils to seek their own career paths as designers, inventors and architects beyond Throckley.

Furthermore, children are encouraged to aspire to achieve through their rich experiences of various media wherein they can embrace first-hand enquiry, allowing them to solve their own problems in their lives. Likewise, through exploring real-life products, children can consider their own opportunities as future designers, inventors and innovators.

To embed and support learning, children will make connections across learned skills, problems and learning experiences through our key concepts: belonging, choice and influence. Pupils will consider local designers and inventors which have influenced their community through the creation of products and inventions to ensure they feel that DT is relevant and purposeful in their lives and to create a sense of belonging. Likewise, choice underpins the nature of our DT curriculum as pupils are given real-life problems and are given a platform to solve these in their own way. Children can consider options presented to them and form their own judgements on scenarios which allows them to respond to a problem in their own, unique way. Furthermore, as children will explore various designers and their products, they can consider the influence DT has on their daily lives and the positive and negatives effects this may encompass. Through this, children can appreciate the vital role DT holds in the 21st century.

Implementation At Throckley Primary School we employ a variety of teaching and learning styles in DT lessons to ensure children develop their knowledge, skillset and understanding. In our DT delivery, we fully embrace our curriculum drivers: Understanding our place in the world, Broadening our horizons and Aspiring to achieve as well as our key concepts of Belonging, Choice and Influence. These are carefully considered when planning and delivering DT learning opportunities to ensure learning is purposeful, relevant and engaging to children at Throckley.

Children can embrace various skills in DT through exploring different media (textiles, food and woodwork) and solving real-life problems using these. Furthermore, children can investigate, explore and develop their own ideas as well as evaluating, revisiting and improving it. This process is vital in allowing them to achieve success as future innovators. Furthermore, through the evaluation of past and present design, children can gain a better understanding of the influence of different products and how they have shaped the world around them. Similarly, children are provided with opportunities to learn how key designers and inventors have enabled change both locally and to the wider world. Through equipping children with this knowledge, they can use it to solve their own real-world problems through designing their own products and solutions.

Through a problem-solving approach, children can embed their learning from English, mathematics, computing and science in a purposeful context; this ensures they are able to make firm connections and can apply and reinforce skills they have learnt across the Throckley curriculum. Moreover, we strive to ensure children can investigate, explore and develop ideas as well as evaluate, revisit and improve their work. This is achieved through a combination of whole class teaching, individual/group activities as well as specialist weeks. We strive to provide opportunities for children to flourish with days and projects dedicated to DT. Likewise, children are encouraged to evaluate their own ideas and methods, as well as evaluate the work of others, including designers and engineers; this provides children with a platform to share their voice through valuing their opinions. Additionally, children are provided with opportunities to work both individually and in collaboration with others giving them a real sense of varied project work and allowing them to reflect on how they solve problems best.

We recognise that children can vary in their confidence, skill, and knowledge of techniques.

At Throckley Primary, we aim to encourage all children to reach their full potential through the provision of varied and individually tailored activities and learning opportunities. These activities match the needs of children with SEN (Special Educational Needs) along with GD (Greater Depth) pupils. Support for children therefore needs to be appropriate and can be achieved through a range of strategies. We achieve this by: •

Setting common tasks which are open ended and can have a variety of responses.

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Having a collaborative task; pairing children and mixing abilities.

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Using additional adults to support the work of individuals or small groups.

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Providing engaging and appropriate resources.

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Setting challenges to stretch and challenge pupils such as ‘moving on’ tasks.

Impact Children at Throckley Primary School thrive in their DT lessons which they value as they are appreciate its importance and role in our daily lives. Children leave Throckley Primary School as enthused problem solvers who can adapt to new challenges through using their wide skillset which has been refined in DT lessons. Our DT curriculum offers children with a variety of hands-on experiences and the opportunity to apply cross-curricular skills in projects which are meaningful to them and their lives. This enables children to leave Throckley as fullyfledged designers who have the confidence to seek new challenges and make mistakes within the process.

Furthermore, the children will become efficient time-keepers who can work constructively and productively with peers; a transferrable skillset which is paramount in working life. Additionally, children will have a deep understanding of a variety of design careers which are linked to work they have studied and are inspired to explore these and their influence in their community.

Finally, children will be responsible designers who work ethically, using finite materials carefully and working safely with the knowledge of moral practice firmly embedded.