Design Technology

At St Andrew’s Infant School, we follow the Development Matters in the Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum for Design and Technology.
The National Curriculum for Design and Technology (2014) aims to ensure that all pupils:
• 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 range of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality 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.

We use a detailed skills progression document to plan and deliver Design and Technology lessons. This ensures that children’s Design and Technology skills are developed systematically from their time in Foundation Stage to the end of Year 2. In addition, children are able to transfer their skills into other areas of the curriculum. As a school, alongside the Development Matters and National Curriculum we follow the Cornerstones curriculum to ensure a well-structured revisiting approach to this subject. The children are taught Design and Technology as part of their half termly topic work. It is through these topics the children will be asked to plan, design and construct for a purpose. They will be able to select appropriate tools and equipment to perform practical tasks, be able to evaluate their own designs and build and explore structures and mechanisms.

In order to promote creative teaching and the children’s enjoyment and curiosity for learning, children will be shown examples of different designer’s works to help them to design, make and evaluate their own designs.