Design and Technology

Design and Technology [D.T.] influences many aspects of daily life and contributes to a variety of many consumer products. It is part of every child's immediate experience.

D.T. combines the skills, knowledge, concepts and values used by people to tackle the problems of living in our man-made world. Children can see the sense of solving real problems and therefore their learning is relevant. D.T. learning involves analysis, problem-solving, practical capability and evaluative skills which are all transferable to other curricular subjects.

Design and Technology is a practical curriculum area that involves the child in meaningful activities, which allow children to design, make and evaluate; through which children are able to develop their skills and knowledge of a wide range of materials and equipment through practical activities in a safe and controlled environment.

The D.T. Curriculum

Our Design and Technology curriculum at The Haven is planned to ensure that a balance of materials, skills, knowledge and understanding are taught progressively each year. It is anticipated that D.T. units will be completed two or three times each school year. One of the projects each year will be focused on cooking and nutrition.

Foundation Stage

D.T. in the Foundation Stage is taught throughout the year, through a number of topics. D.T is incorporated through the main areas of learning and assessed using the Early Learning Goals. The main areas which the skills of D.T will be taught through are; ‘Communication and Language’, ‘Personal, Social and Emotional Development’, ‘Physical Development’, ‘Understanding the World’ and ‘Expressive Arts and Design’.

Key Stage 1

In Key Stage 1, children will build upon the foundation of skills they have developed in the previous year. Through a variety of creative and practical activities, children are taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in a process of designing and making. Children will work with different contexts for example; the home, school, leisure, culture, enterprise, industry and the wider environment. Children will focus on skills of ‘Making’, ‘Designing’, ‘Evaluating’ and ‘Technical knowledge’. For cooking and nutrition children will be taught to use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes and understand where food comes from.

Key Stage 2

In Key Stage 2, children will build upon their learning in Foundation and KS1 to deepen their knowledge and use the same skills in more technical projects. For cooking and nutrition, children will understand and apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet. Prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques and understand seasonality.

Term 1

Sapphire’s created Moving Pictures and evaluated them.

Term 3

Amethysts had a visit from a baker, tasted biscuits then designed and baked their own.

Term 4

Emeralds constructed Tudor houses and burnt them to see how the fire of London spread.

Term 5

Emeralds tried fruits and vegetables. Then they designed and prepared their own savoury salads to encourage other children to try more fruit and vegetables.

Term 6

A team of 4 Emerald children took part in the Junior Engineers Challenge at the Town Hall. They worked with each other and with the help of engineers to create a trolley to transport an egg safely down a zip wire.  Our team came first out of 6 schools.  Whilst Ambers constructed hand puppets using sewing and joining techniques