Design technology at Bosvigo aims to inspire pupils to be innovative and creative thinkers who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation and evaluation. We want pupils to develop the confidence to take risks, through drafting design concepts, modelling and testing and to be reflective learners who evaluate their work and the work of others. We aim to build an awareness of the impact of design and technology on our lives and encourage pupils to become resourceful, enterprising citizens who will have the skills to contribute to future design advancements. Through our design and technology curriculum, children should be inspired by engineers, designers, chefs and architects to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products with a real-life purpose.
Each of our design and technology units follows the design process of design, make and evaluate, and has a particular theme and focus from the technical knowledge or cooking and nutrition section of the National Curriculum. We teach a spiral curriculum, with key areas revisited again and again with increasing complexity to revisit and build on previous learning.
Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including practical hands-on, computer-based and inventive tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles.
We use a variety of strategies to evaluate the knowledge, skills and understanding that our children have gained in each half-termly unit. These include:
- Regular marking and pupil voice feedback.
- Subject monitoring, including book looks.
- Regular low stakes knowledge assessments.