Inquisitive, Resilient, Independent    

At Anglesey, we are a vibrant and nurturing school community, where children are given the skills to become, inquisitive, resilient, independent learners.    

Our curriculum provides a range of creative, challenging and inspiring experiences for all.  This equips our children with the life skills to be happy, flourish and be successful…Today, tomorrow and in the future    

D&T INTENT   

Design and Technology is an inspiring, creative subject. At Anglesey, we encourage children to think and intervene creatively to solve problems, both as individuals and as a team. We provide opportunities for children to explore mechanisms, structures, textiles and nutrition. We aim, wherever possible to link D&T to other subjects e.g. Y5 design and build bridges during their Victorian topic where they study Brunel. We encourage children to use their creativity and imagination to design and make products for a purpose, to solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts. Children are given opportunities to evaluate and reflect on their work and design technology from others, past and present, to encourage risk taking and innovation.  

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND VALUES     

INQUISITIVE    

An inquisitive learner has a thirst for learning and wants to discover as much as they can about the world by asking questions.    

RESILIENT    

A resilient learner can bounce back from challenges and problems, but also has the capacity to adapt in the face of challenging circumstances, whilst maintaining a stable mental wellbeing.    

INDEPENDENT    

An independent learner takes responsibility for their own learning. They are self-motivated and accept that frustration in the present is worthwhile to achieve future success. They take initiative and are good problem solvers.    

Pupils develop Inquisitiveness in D&T

by:   

• Encouraging children to think of the following before designing a product or food.  What is the reason I am creating this product? What is its use? Who will benefit from the product? These question threads are followed through each lesson to ensure that children are reflecting back to their learning intent for their design. 
• Exploring how products have been created. 
• Exploring objects and designs to identify likes and dislikes of the designs.  
• Understanding how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world. 

Pupils develop Resilience in  D&T by:   

• Creating products through different stages design stage – look at design and develop if need to. Building product – developing children’s skills to decipher what went well with their design and how they can improve. 
• Suggesting improvements to existing designs. 
• Making products, refining the design as work progresses. 
• building structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable. 
• applying their understanding of how to strengthen, stiffen and reinforce more complex structures

Pupils develop Independence in D&T by:   

• exploring new vocabulary and language that they can use to talk or write about, as their work develops.  
• Using vocabulary to analyse their own work and suggest improvements.

• Cutting materials, suggesting improvements to existing designs safely using tools provided. 
• Cutting, peeling or grating ingredients safely and hygienically. 

CREATIVE, CHALLENGING AND INSPIRING EXPERIENCES     

Children are given opportunities to develop in different areas of DT. Examples in year 2 include food technology; making bread, cooking outdoors, designing a healthy food plate, opportunity to design their own chocolate bar wrapper, whereas children in Year 6 make an electrical Fairground ride.

Children are given the opportunity to use materials and unfamiliar tools to practice drilling, screwing, gluing and nailing materials to make and strengthen products. They generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through talking, drawing, templates, mock-ups and, where appropriate, information and communication technology and allowing innovation and opportunities to improve or change ideas and designs

Challenge is provided at the start of any D&T project and problems have to be solved throughout the design make and evaluate process. Children are given opportunities to work with unfamiliar tools and materials to make decisions about which to use, how and when to use them. For example in Year 2 children used threading needles to create a Viking pattern, exploring use of early tools to modern tools and being able to explain the differences and similarities. In Year 6, the challenges include using computing to create a working fair ground ride with working parts, transferring motion with stable frameworks. Children are constantly asked to explore, analyse and evaluate and develop the understanding that trial and error is often needed.

Developing and creating Viking shields through information learnt in class.  

D&T is brought to life in a range of curriculum subjects, for example, linking perfectly to the Viking History Day where children learned to cook like a Viking (vegetable stew), design and weave Viking patterns, and investigate Viking tools used to create long ships.  

In D&T children learn new skills to inspire their thinking and designs for future products, for example using levers, wheels and winding mechanisms to create a moving dinosaur offers great inspiration for a history and science project about dinosaurs or transferring the skills they learned in Year 4 science to create a working alarm system .

D&T IMPLEMENTATION  

 D&T is often able to be taught through other curriculum subjects at Anglesey through a progression of skills and in line with the National Curriculum. With year groups undertaking a construction, textiles and food project.

Delivery shows clear following of the design process where projects follow: research, design, make and evaluate. Food used is often taken from one of the three gardens we have at Anglesey, including the organic garden in Key Stage 2.

Clear and appropriate cross curricular links underpinning learning in many areas across the curriculum giving children the opportunities to learn life skills and apply these skills in hands on situations in a purposeful context, in an ever changing developing world. The skills learned in D&T will also be transferred during each year groups’ enterprise week, where they develop and produce a product for sale. Previously, as an example, Year 5 have made hanging baskets and involved the local community in their production and sale.

D&T IMPACT  

 Children will be able to transfer skills learned in D&T to other subjects. As designers, children will develop life long skills.

Each year group keeps a folder of work which clearly shows progression across the year. An additional folder is kept to show evidence of progression across the whole school from Nursery to Year 6. Year managers regularly involve groups of pupils in discussions about their  own learning, including reflecting on standards achieved against the planned outcomes.