Design and Technology Vision

At Alexandra Infants’ School we ensure that all children are provided with the tools to meet age related expectations. We aim to provide engaging and inclusive opportunities for all pupils to use creativity and imagination to explore, design and make a range of products. The design and technology curriculum has been created with this in mind and encourages pupils to develop, apply and embed their skills whilst building on what they have learnt previously.

The curriculum is sequenced as a progression model. Skills have been mapped out across the school to ensure that there is a clear path of progression for pupils in all aspects of designing, making and evaluating.

Planned lessons provide exciting activities that link across the curriculum encouraging the development of pupils as designers in all areas. The topics offered to our pupils particularly promote links to history and culture.

Subject Leader Promise:

My name is Miss Karim and I am the Design & Technology (D&T) subject leader at Alexandra Infants’ School. I believe that a creative curriculum promotes a more inclusive environment which for the pupils here is the key to all learning. D&T allows our pupils to express themselves as well as develop specific skills. As subject lead, I promise to ensure that every pupil has access to a rich curriculum where they are able to acquire and develop these skills.

We have recently moved to the Kapow scheme of work for D&T, which follows a spiral curriculum with progressive skills that are built upon from Reception and through to Year 2. The pupils are able to access lessons which incorporate the following key areas:
– Design;
– Build;
– Evaluate;
– Technical Knowledge;
– Food and Nutrition.

Each lesson incorporates the metacognitive strategies that we as a school use to underpin the whole curriculum. Retrieval practice is used to review prior and spaced learning, supporting the pupils in knowing and remembering more. Specific vocabulary teaching is woven throughout these lessons and used in conversation with the children in order to encourage the use of subject specific language. The lesson structures also follow an ‘I do, We do, You do’ approach to best support independent learning.

It is my experience that the pupils in our school thoroughly enjoy the Design and Technology opportunities that we offer, whether this be through cross curricular activities or the specific skills that we teach in line with the National Curriculum. We aim to encourage the pupils to explore and develop their own ideas, as well as teach them how to evaluate the work of others as well as themselves. It is my hope that the children will leave Alexandra Infants’ with of a love of all things creative.

We use topic floor books to showcase the children’s learning in Design and Technology. We encourage the pupils to not only complete written evaluations of their work but also to demonstrate and talk about it, which we record using iPads and then use links via QR codes to share this with others.

Link Governor – Mr A. Powell

Design and Technology Curriculum:

At Alexandra Infants’ School the Design and Technology curriculum is split into topics that ensure the skills and knowledge are developed as set out in the National Curriculum. Our school also uses the Alexandra Promise, a tool that we have recently introduced to help children to get to know themselves and embrace who they are so that they can choose how to be awesome, to excel, and how to stand out. The Alexandra Promise supports the D&T curriculum by providing children with activities such as:

· making a sandwich

· making a paper boat to see whether it floats

· making biscuits

· making chapattis

· making a puppet and putting on a puppet show

· making a den

· baking a cake

· making a mask

· making a home for an insect or small creature

Educational Experiences:

In order to promote a love for learning, educational visits and outside agencies are accessed to enhance the learning opportunities that we provide. Here are some of the activities we have used recently:

– Going to Brampton Museum to learn about toys from the past and having the opportunity to make a toy.
– Going to Gladstone Museum to learn about pottery and then design and make a plate

Curriculum Documents:

D&T Curriculum Overview
D&T Vertical Progression
D&T Long Term Plan
D&T Policy