Design & Technology at Edward Francis Primary School

“Design and Technology is about making things that people want and that work well.  Creating these things is hugely exciting: it is an inventive, fun activity.”- James Dyson, Chairman, Dyson Ltd.

The aims of Design and Technology at Edward Francis Primary School are:

• To promote Design and Technology as a creative problem solving subject .
• To encourage positive attitudes towards and nurture enjoyment of Design and Technology work in school by celebrating the creative ideas, practical skills and aesthetic aspects of pupils’ designs.
• To provide quality teaching of materials, mechanisms and technologies and to encourage pupils to make the effort to get ‘hands-on’ with them to consolidate understanding of how they work.  
• To encourage a healthy respect of  safety through the reinforcement of correct procedures when using tools and equipment.
• To develop resilience when ideas don’t work and encourage a mindset of constant improvement through the DT Cycle:
  • Evaluate (Existing designs)
  • Explore relevant skills and technologies
  • Design a solution
  • Make
  • Evaluate (and improve)
• To encourage pupils to work both individually and in partnership with others. 
• To educate pupils about the origins of food, how to follow a healthy and varied diet and to give pupils the opportunity to practise food preparation and cooking in a safe and hygienic manner.

Curriculum and Policies

Our Design & Technology Policy outlines the intent, implementation and impact of DT teaching at EFPS and is aligned to the National Curriculum. We see DT as a creative, problem solving subject where children can explore a number of solutions to a design brief. We wish to nurture an investigative approach where children can learn new technologies, try out their ideas and refine their solutions within a safe, learning environment.

Each year group has the opportunity to follow the design process, researching similar products, learning about the material properties available and how to join them. We instruct the children on how to use a variety of cutting and joining tools and methods and then we encourage the children to make their own designs and evaluate them, commenting on how well their work satisfies the original design brief or solves the original problem.

We strive to provide progression in the following knowledge and skills;

Knowledge

• materials choice and strengthening methods
• wheels and axles
• levers and linkages
• electrical circuits
• gears and pulleys

Skills

• choosing materials based on their properties
• measuring & cutting materials
• joining materials
• understanding parts lists
• assembling components
• evaluating and improving designs

Design & Technology

Food and Nutrition

The National Curriculum for Design and Technology states that:

As part of their work with food, pupils should be taught how to cook and apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating. Instilling a love of cooking in pupils will also open a door to one of the great expressions of human creativity. Learning how to cook is a crucial life skill that enables pupils to feed themselves and others affordably and well, now and in later life.

Pupils should be taught to:

Key stage 1

• use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes
• understand where food comes from

Key stage 2

• 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
• understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed

At Edward Francis Primary School, each year group has the opportunity to follow a recipe and cook. Alongside this, we include lessons about healthy eating (The Eatwell Plate), personal hygiene, hydration, tooth care, where food comes from, how to read food labels and safety in the kitchen. The progression of skills is outlined in our DT Food and Nutrition Overview document.

The documents and links below explain these further.

Cooking is a great family bonding, cross-curricular activity that gives children skills for life. We hope that you enjoy cooking at home!

For any further information regarding the teaching and learning of Design & Technology or Cooking & Nutrition please contact Mrs Reynolds on areynolds@edwardfrancis.essex.sch.uk