Intent

At New Wave Federation, children receive a design and technology curriculum which allows them to exercise their creativity through six interrelated principles: user, purpose, functionality, design decisions, innovation and authenticity. Children design and make products for a specific consumer and purpose, utilising their knowledge of different components. This knowledge is taught progressively to ensure that all children know more and are able to do more year on year allowing their products to become more sophisticated over time. Evaluation is an integral part of the design process and allows children to adapt and improve their products. Design Technology allows children to apply their knowledge from other subjects, particularly maths, science and art and design.

Implementation

At New Wave Federation, the National Curriculum content is taught supported by a clear knowledge progression. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children.

All Teaching of Design Technology follows the design, make and evaluate cycle. Each stage is rooted in technical knowledge with real life purposes for products, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning. While making, children should be given choice and a range of tools to choose freely from. To evaluate, children should be able to evaluate their own products against design criteria. Each of these steps should be rooted in technical knowledge and vocabulary. Design Technology should be taught to a high standard, where each of the stages should be given equal weight.

The key skills we teach the children are

• sewing and textiles 
• cooking and nutrition 
• electrical and mechanical components 
• using materials

Impact

At the end of each year children at New Wave Federation will have gained a progressive and deepening understanding of core design skills. Through discussion and feedback, our children will be able to talk enthusiastically about their Design Technology lessons and other cross curricular sessions and tasks. Children across the school will be able to articulate well about the benefits of learning about design.

Our children will know how and why it is important to learn and develop creative and problem-solving skills. They will know how design technology has shaped and contributed to the world around us. 

The children, with support, will be able to use acquired vocabulary in lessons.  They will demonstrate skills through the work they produce.  Written work, photographs and products will be produced by the children to demonstrate this work and to record progress in the subject.