Design Technology Curriculum Overview

" Inspiring us all to create a better world"

Matthew 5: 13-15 " You are the salt of the earth...you are the light of the world."

At Holmer CE Academy, we endeavour to equip and nurture the children to become the artists and designers of the future. We provide them with the skill sets and relevant knowledge they need, as well as giving them the freedom to express and explore. Through a tactical, vibrant and imaginative art and DT curriculum, we engage every child’s capacity to create and design. We also foster a learning environment that appreciates and praises the work of others. Children develop the key skills of art and design as well as developing personally as artists and designers, becoming increasingly creative, resilient, and confident. Children’s own work is based on a secure understanding of the work of artists, craft makers, architects and designers and the ability to discuss their techniques and intentions.

Therefore, all of our DT lessons are designed to enable all pupils to:

•    develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world;
•    understand how significant designers have brought about change and the influence they have had;
•    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.

All year groups carry out DT days at the end of each term to incorporate the skills required by the National Curriculum. Each year group is also allocated a designer for the year on which they will focus some of their DT skills through specific days or weeks, resulting in seven key designers having been studied by the end of Primary School. These designers are: Andy Goldsworthy, Henry Ford and Morgan, Sir Christopher Wren, Antoni Gaudí, William Paterson and Oscar Carl Kerrison. In addition to this, some year groups study specific design styles such as Roman architecture. 
 

All lessons are differentiated. This means teachers plan activities that enable the objective to be learned by all children including those who will find the objective challenging, those children who with hard work will secure good progress and those children who can tackle extra stretch and challenge in this subject. The following is a guide to help you understand your child’s progression through school. The design technology  curriculum can be broken down further into the following areas: