Abbotswood Primary School
Together We Aim High, Believe and Achieve
Being an Engineer - Design and Technology
Being an Engineer at Abbotswood Primary School (Intent)
At Abbotswood Primary School we aim to enable children to develop skills and knowledge in design, structures, mechanisms, electrical control and a range of materials, including food. It promotes children's creativity and encourages them to think about important issues. This subject empowers pupils to use their knowledge and skills of other subjects, especially Mathematics, Science and Art, to: identify needs and generate ideas, explore possible solutions by designing, plan and make, evaluate what they have made and communicate their results to others.
How is DT taught at Abbotswood primary School (Implementation)
D&T is taught through an enquiry based curriculum, children are taught through the three phases of designing, making and evaluating their own products. Each year group focuses on 3 topics throughout the year and each topic will focus on a separate set of skills. As children progress through the school, they are presented with opportunities to develop these skills, as similar topics are revisited and built upon. All teachers link their Design and Technology projects to their own topics, which allows the teachers to be creative with their lessons, whilst still ensuring all aspects of the National Curriculum are covered.
The time dedicated to D&T ensures that each topic can be delivered to a high standard and children can create important and useful products. Resources are plentiful and allow children to be clever and creative when designing and making their products. All children are challenged during D&T lessons through continuous verbal feedback and through problems presented to them.
During D&T lessons, many cross-curricular links are observed. Maths links are easy to come across during any D&T lesson; children are continuously measuring during the ‘design’ and ‘make’ phases of lessons. During cooking topics, children are measuring out ingredients, as well as calculating the quantities of different recipes. Instructions are often created as part of the ‘design’ phase, which has a direct link to English. Through the children presenting their products confidently oracy skills are practised. Science knowledge is practised when children are creating products that contain electrical components, for example Year 4 children use their knowledge of electrical circuits to create nightlights/torches. Teachers also encourage children to consider the impact their product can have on the wider world, to ensure they realise the difference they may make in the future.
How do we Evaluate as learners as Engineers? (Impact)
Towards the end of the enquiry children create a final product; these products are a fantastic way for children to demonstrate the skills they have learnt. Throughout the school, children are given the opportunity to consolidate their skills by creating their final product independently. Each lesson builds on the previous and children’s skills are improved upon throughout each enquiry. It is also clear to see the progression of skills throughout the school through the quality of products each year group creates. Subject and school leaders monitor the impact of our curriculum provision through completing regular monitoring, that includes listening to the voice of our children.