Curriculum Overview

Rationale

The Fern Hill Design and Technology curriculum aims to inspire children to use their creativity and imagination to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.  

How our Design and Technology Curriculum aligns to the school overarching aims

Implementation 

How the curriculum is organised

At Fern Hill, Design and Technology and Art and Design alternates termly so that each year group from Years 1-6 completes 3 DT sequences per year. All units include these six core principles and concepts to ensure that the overarching Design and Technology rationale is achieved: 

Each sequence of work follows these typical steps to allow pupils to experience the full design process that they might later experience in the real world, with each part of the sequence broken into smaller steps to ensure that children learn key knowledge and skills before applying them to making their final product at the end of each sequence. 

Design and Technology Progression Framework

To ensure progression and learning for the long term, the curriculum is mapped so that the key strands are revisited multiple times throughout the curriculum: 

As well as this, opportunities to revisit, build upon and apply previously taught skills have been carefully mapped out to deepen knowledge, skills and understanding and ensure children know more and remember more. For example, in Year 2 children apply knowledge and skill learnt in Year 1 of how to make a hinged door to their bathing machine toys. In Year 3, children are required to use skills taught in Year 1 of how to prepare vegetables using cutting, slicing, squeezing and grating to fill the healthy bread roll recipe they make. In Year 6, children are required to retrieve knowledge from Year 2 on making a wheels and axles mechanism to design their own moving alarmed vehicle. 

Deepening knowledge, skills and understanding is also enhanced by providing children with additional opportunities to revisit and apply skills through links with other subjects or additional enrichment activities.   

For example:

Science: exploring and applying knowledge of properties of materials, forces in action and electrical circuits  

Maths: applying measuring skills and working with statistics as part of product research 

Art: developing skills in drawing, joining, decorating, embellishing as part of the artistic process 

Plot to Plate: Exploring healthy eating, seasonality and growing vegetables in PSHE and Science and using the produce grown either within their own cooking in DT lessons or to share with the kitchen to use in school meals. 

Additional opportunities for cooking:

Year 2: Making Sandwiches and Soup   

Year 5: Savoury Muffins 

Year 6: Making Pizzas 

Additional Opportunities for developing sewing skills: 

EYFS: Threading and weaving to develop fine motor skills 

Year 1: Simple Stitch to embellish textiles in Art  

Year 4: Weaving Landscapes, Christmas Stockings

Year 5: Sewing Christmas Decorations 

Impact 

By the time our pupils leave Fern Hill they will have:

• An excellent attitude to learning and independent working.

• The ability to use time efficiently and work constructively and productively with others.

• The ability to carry out thorough research, show initiative and ask questions to develop an exceptionally detailed knowledge of users' needs.

• The ability to act as responsible designers and makers, working ethically, using finite materials carefully and working safely.

• A thorough knowledge of which tools, equipment and materials to use to make their products.

• The ability to apply mathematical and scientific knowledge and skills accurately.

• The ability to manage risks exceptionally well to manufacture products safely and hygienically.

• A passion for the subject and a desire to explore their learning further in the future.