Design Technology

Learning in Design Technology

All the teaching staff at Meon Infant School are working with Meon Junior and Moorings Way Infant School colleagues to identify how our curriculum will meet the needs of our children across the three schools.

We believe it is important to plan the learning journey of the children from Year R to Year 6. As an Infant school our education helps teach students the skills and knowledge they will need to continue to develop at our Junior school.  This is vitally important. As three schools, we have worked together to produce a joint intention of what we want the children to learn. 

progression

teaching sequence

By the end of Year 2

By the end of KS2, our children will have had the chance to be creative and practical within a range of contexts (sometimes building structures and using mechanisms). They will have experienced designing purposeful products, making these from a wide range of materials/components and evaluated, constantly exploring how to make improvements.

When designing and making, pupils should be taught to:

Design

  • design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria.
  • generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through talking, drawing, templates, mock-ups and, where appropriate, information and communication technology.

Make

  •  select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks (for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing).
  •  select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics.

Evaluate

  •  explore and evaluate a range of existing products.
  •  evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria.

Technical knowledge

  • build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable.
  • explore and use mechanisms [for example, levers, sliders, wheels and axles], in their products.

 

By the end of Year 6

By the time our children leave our Junior school in Year 6, they will have built on what they have learnt in KS1.  They will know how to use a wider range of tools, materials and equipment with increasing accuracy and independence.  They will investigate and evaluate their ideas against their own design criteria.  Children will understand and apply technical knowledge in more complex structures and use mechanical and electrical systems and computer programming in their products.