Our approach and aims.

DT 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.  (NC)

Our DT teaching and learning at Wenhaston is in line with our overall curriculum vision.

We teach the art of good self communication and communication with others through the importance of good planning… What do I need to do? What resources do I have/need?  What methods are best for this? etc. Practical tasks are always better when approached logically after a considerable amount of planning and testing.

This help builds a sense of resilience as many things may need to be adapted along the way to overcome design flaws.  At these points we build upon our skills such as risk taking, being resourceful, being enterprising and innovative.

We want children to ‘aim high’ moving beyond simple activities so that they have an understanding of the whole process involved with product design, development and evaluation.

Finally we try to link this to the bigger picture globally, how does this fit within other parts of the world? Other cultures and traditions? 

Timetable expectations 

Our DT at Wenhaston is mostly taught in termly blocks, in order to achieve the best possible coverage of the curriculum. Due to the nature of the tasks it helps to start a process and see it through to completion to develop our skills to the best of our abilities and to provide the children with the most memorable Learning Outcomes.

Principles and expectations 

In every classroom you should see a cycle where outcomes have been planned around a model of Design, Make and Evaluate. Children will also be introduced to the necessary technical knowledge and vocabulary.  Children should be able to articulate which part of the process they are working on and why it’s relevant in the whole project.

Recording and Marking.

Plans and evaluations will usually be written in a format that suits each unit of teaching.  

The practical outcome will be a finished piece that may be eaten, taken home etc but would be photographed first as evidence.

Scheme, resources and licences.

We don’t follow a scheme of learning for DT we plan our own projects to suit our curriculum using objectives and coverage straight from the National Curriculum.

Resources - These constantly need to be reviewed depending on the nature of the project… Some things are already in school such as cookery equipment but others would need ordering in advance for particular projects, such as ingredients. Therefore some planned time in a staff meeting or with an individual teacher helps with this.

Teaching sequence in every class: 

We are trying to plan as many whole school blocks as possible so that children can produce the very best possible outcome. Some of these even enable the whole school to take part in the same project. This means that children not only work as part of a ‘team’ but may also revisit a project at a different place in the school to see the progression and raise expectations.  Other blocks will be bespoke to individual classes according to their theme at the time.

Updated February 2024