"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

 Steve Jobs, co founder of Apple, Inc.

Intent

At Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School, we strive to create a love and

interest in design technology and to inspire pupils’ curiosity to think about the whole process of design. We aim to help our children to gain relevant skills that will equip them to become the designers and inventors of the future. We want to instil a thirst for knowledge about how the design process works, and an understanding of the design process that happens before an idea for a product becomes a reality.

Our curriculum is based on three themes: Pride in our Place, Aspire and Achieve and Ignite Possibilities. Through these themes, we educate our children to take pride in our unique city, to explore the architectural design of famous buildings and landmarks in and around Liverpool; such as the iconic Lamb-banana and the cathedrals, and to have ambition to use this knowledge and understanding in their aspirations for future careers. 

We follow the National Curriculum for Primary Design Technology beginning with EYFS,

Expressive Arts and Design. A design technology progression map from Y1-Y6 builds upon prior knowledge in a carefully sequenced curriculum and makes links to other subject areas where possible. Our design technology curriculum has bespoke substantive concepts which are threaded throughout, these include cooking and nutrition, structures and mechanisms and textiles. Through these we also address the concepts of seasonality within food, farm to fork, fairtrade, recycling and sustainability.

Implementation

 
Our design technology curriculum is taught using the Great Teaching Toolkit, 2020. We endeavour to be consistent in our approach to create a supportive environment that is inclusive. We support all our pupils using adaptive teaching techniques, Voice 21 talk tactics and oracy sentence stems. We activate hard thinking through our thinking schools strategies and Q Matrix questioning to bring history to life and develop a real sense of enquiry.  At Our Lady Star of the Sea, we have a consistent recipe for teaching history which follows Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction.

Impact
 

The impact of our design technology curriculum is measured through a variety of different strategies. Ongoing teacher assessment is used throughout lessons to inform teaching. Children also learn the skill of evaluating products and design, these skills then enable them to engage in child led assessment where they review and evaluate their own designs and products as well as those of their peers.
 
Children’s learning is monitored by the Design Technology Subject Leader in which constructive feedback is given to staff for future planning.  Design Technology is monitored through learning walks and pupil voice. This is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision. 
 
At Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School, staff work closely together as a team to ensure children receive a quality Design Technology curriculum to allow them to develop a love of learning and skill set to become designers, planners, inventors and innovators.