Design Technology

Intent

Design and Technology provides all pupils with the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge and understanding by: 

• Designing their own products 
• Making their products come to life 
• Evaluating their functional product   

From doing this, the pupils at Dukesgate Academy will gain:  

• Practical life skills 
• Relevant, progressive knowledge of their own designs  
• Appreciate the work of a range of craftspeople in the world in which we live in 
• Encourage their creativity and innovation through design 

Our curriculum is design to embed core disciplinary knowledge, and the ability to approach challenging, design questions  

• Marking out and cutting skills  
• Fixing and joining skills  
• Mechanical and control skills  
• Finishing skills, including food hygiene  
• Related language skills 

Click below to see the United Learning Design and Technology Curriculum:

Implementation

Design and Technology at Dukesgate Academy, is taught through a variety of creative and practical lessons. We teach the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engaged in the processes of designing, making and evaluating.  

Pupils are taught to: 

Design: 

• Innovate functional and appealing products which are fit for purpose  
• ​Generate ideas through group research, discussion and annotating sketches 

Make:

• Use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks (cutting/shaping/joining) with accuracy and being aware of health and safety issues related to the tasks undertaken 
• ​Select and use a range of different materials, ingredients and components 

Evaluate:  

• Evaluate their products with both their own designs and against others, considering the views of others to improve/develop their products. 

Impact

Our Design and Technology Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression year on year, giving pupils the skills, knowledge and vocabulary that they need to move forward in their learning, alongside opportunities to apply their knowledge to different situations. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum using the following methods:

• Pupil discussions about their learning; which includes discussion of their thoughts, ideas, processing and evaluations of work.
• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes
• Images and videos of the children’s practical learning
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice)
• Marking of work in books