St Augustine S Catholic

St Augustine’s Catholic

Primary School

Design & Technology Policy

Mission Statement

In St Augustine’s we always try to do our best.

Together, we work hard and play fairly, praying

and caring for everyone as Jesus taught us.

Spring 2013

Review Date: Spring 2015

Design Technology

Policy

Name of school:St. Augustine’s CatholicPrimary School

Date of policy: April 2013

People responsible for policy: C Heath

Review date: April 2015

Description of school:

St. Augustine’s is a large Nursery and primary school with a two-form entry for children from 3-11 years old. St. Augustine’s is a multi-cultural, urban school with children from wide social backgrounds, catering for a broad range of ability including children with special needs statements and/ or physical disability.

Aims and Objectives

In St Augustine’s CatholicPrimary School we hope to promote an understanding of the design

technology process in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. We encourage the children to think creatively, be creative problem solvers,working individually and as part of a team, drawing on the knowledge andskills of all subjects but particularly numeracy, science and art.

Design and technology will enable children to develop ideas and eventuallymake products and systems, combining practical skills with an understandingof aesthetic, social and environmental issues as well as functions andindustrial practices.

We encourage the children to reflect on and evaluate present and pasttechnology, its uses and its impacts, enabling all children to be informed consumers and potential innovators.

The Aims of Design and Technology are;

To develop imaginative thinking in children and to enable them totalk about what they like and dislike when designing and making;

To enable children to talk about how things work, and to draw and model their ideas;

To encourage children to select appropriate tools and techniquesfor making a product, whilst following safe procedures;

To develop an understanding of technological processes,products, their manufacture and their contribution to our society;

To foster enjoyment, satisfaction and purpose in designing andmaking.

Teaching and Learning Style

We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in Design Technology lessons. The principal aim is to develop children’s knowledge, skills andunderstanding in design and technology, and teachers encourage children touse their knowledge and understanding when developing ideas, planning and

making products and evaluating them.

We use a balance of whole-class teaching and individual/ group activities,giving children opportunity to both work on their own and to collaborate withothers.

Children are encouraged to listen to the ideas of others, and treat them withrespect, to critically evaluate existing products, both their own work and thoseof others. They have the opportunity to use a wide range of materials andresources, including ICT.

In all classes there are children of differing ability. We recognise this fact andprovide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching thechallenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through arange of strategies:

Setting common tasks that ore open-ended and can have a variety of result;

Setting tasks of increasing difficulty where not all children complete all tasks;

Providing a range of challenges through thee provision of different resources;

Using additional adults to support the work of individual children or smallgroups.

Design and Technology Curriculum Planning

“Teaching should ensure that knowledge and understanding are applied when developing ideas, planning, making products and evaluatingthem.”

(Design technology, The National Curriculum for England, KS1-4)

KS1 and KS2

At St Augustine’s we use the topics chosen by the teachers in the IPC scheme of work to teach Design Technology.

We are aware that not all topics have a broad enough coverage of the objectives needed to be covered in the National Curriculum in order to develop the children’s Design Technology skills. To ensure each year group shows coverage and progression in Design Technology the IPC objectives are co-ordinated with those missing from the National Curriculum and then integrated into the long/medium term plans within the year group.

The Foundation Stage

(Expressive Arts)

Children are offered a combination of focused and child initiated design and creative activities across the Reception classrooms working both indoors and outdoors.

The focused activities are chosen to support the children’s learning needs and interests. Throughout the year they progressively reflect the objectives highlighted in the document “Development Matters: Expressive Arts” leading to the Early Learning Goals.

Two child initiated design and creative areas arealso provided for children across the year group, one specifically for creative and the other for construction. These areas help the children to:

develop their own ideas
select their resources and the reasons for these
think about the processes that they need to do in order to reach a desired effect
produce models that they can evaluate and return to again.

In both focused and child initiated activities the children are questioned about how things work, they are encouraged to think critically about their work and the techniques they have adopted to create their models and they are taught how to use equipment safely and with increasing control.

Implications for whole school:

Ensure implementation of Design Technology policy
Attend relevant INSET as necessary
Be responsible for teaching of Design Technologyin a healthy and safe environment eg: awareness of potentially hazardous equipment.
Offer close supervision of activities as appropriate
Ensure maintenance of resources and equipment
Monitor curriculum coverage, continuity and progression
Offer educational visits as part of general and specific learning experience
Celebration of the children’s success in Design Technology through display in classrooms and around the school
Assessment / monitoring of work using photographic evidence

Implications for standards team:

To evaluate and monitor the IPC scheme of work ensuring progression in skills throughout the school
To co-ordinate the purchasing of, the organisation and distribution of appropriate DT resources within each department
To establish collaboration within and between year groups as necessary
Provide advice and assistance as required by members of staff
To monitor and evaluate the quality and impact of teaching and learning

The Design Technology policy will be reviewed by middle managers as part of the ongoing school self evaluation programme.