Rationale

At Greet, we are driven by a collective mission of ensuring that children understand that there are no limits to what they can achieve.  It is through this relentless ambition and high expectations that we seek to secure academic excellence for our children, to develop their social intelligence and to develop their understanding of how to live ethical lives.   We do this so that our children can go on to live their best lives, with respect for and understanding of others and the world around them.

Design and technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Using creativity and imagination, pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. They acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art.

Our approach

Our design and technology curriculum, aligned closely to the National Curriculum provides our pupils with the opportunity to:

• 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 repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and 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.

At Greet Primary School we teach design and technology through our Cornerstones curriculum. The design and technology projects are well sequenced to provide a coherent subject scheme that develops children’s designing, planning, making and evaluating skills.

Each project is based around a design and technology subject focus of structures, mechanisms, cooking and nutrition or textiles. The design and technology curriculum’s electronic systems and IT monitoring and control elements are explicitly taught in our science projects to ensure the links between the subjects are highlighted. Where possible, meaningful links to other areas of the curriculum have been made. For example, the cooking and nutrition project Eat the Seasons is taught alongside the geography project Sow, Grow and Farm.

All the projects follow a structure where children are introduced to key concepts and build up knowledge and skills over time, using a more comprehensive range of equipment and building, cutting, joining, finishing and cooking techniques as they progress through school. All projects contain focused, practical tasks in the Develop stage to help children gain the knowledge and skills needed to complete their Innovate tasks independently. Throughout Key Stages 1 and 2, children build up their knowledge and understanding of the iterative design process. They design, make, test and evaluate their products to match specific design criteria and ensure they fit their purpose.

Throughout the projects, children are taught to work hygienically and safely. Throughout the design and technology scheme, there is complete coverage of all national curriculum programmes of study.