Design and Technology
Curriculum Intent (Vision)
At Manor Field Junior School, we aim to give children the skills they will need to flourish in the wider world through real life experiences, broadening their horizons, developing their creativity and encouraging them to have high aspirations. Our DT curriculum is designed around this ethos, focussing on three over-arching principles:
- Maths in the real world;
- The community;
- And caring for the environment.
Implementation of the curriculum
Through carefully designed tasks, children are given chances to use maths within a real-life context; by working out costings and profits, or by measuring sizes for parts of their products. Children will be challenged to use their DT skills to recycle products we would previously have thrown away (for example, fast fashion), and to use less packaging in their production. To achieve this effectively, DT is the focus of two different events, which are held on alternative years: Manor Feast on the Field, and Business and Enterprise week.
During Manor Feast on the Field, children research, design, create and evaluate their own food dish to sell. Children learn fundamental skills; such as preparation of food, food safety, and different cooking techniques, as well as explore health difficulties within the nation. Through research, children begin to understand national campaigns – recycling, packaging and sugar taxes – and learn key skills that will support them, for example, homemade vs shop made, seasonality and costing. At the end of the week, the community is invited in to celebrate the children’s successes and to taste their products.
"It was really fun trying to sell our food at Manor Feast on the Field. I was really proud of what we had made."
Business and Enterprise week focuses on the DT process as a whole, while incorporating important DT skills that children will need to succeed, such as measuring, sawing and sewing. Throughout the event, the children research, design, create and evaluate a product that they then sell to people in the community. Through product research, children will also explore a key designer and how they helped to shape modern society. By looking at their design process, children begin to understand the importance of designing a product around an audience and a purpose, before putting this into practice with their own product. Children learn to consider material choices, costing and profits within their design, using key techniques and skills, such as woodwork, levers and pulleys to complete their final product.
As fundamental real-life skills, children are given opportunities across the school to practise both woodwork and sewing separately, with a focus on detail, accuracy and maths in the real world throughout the rest of the year.
"I enjoyed making the moving cars because it was similar to how we made chariots. It was really interesting to see how the motors work on the moving cars."
Impact of our curriculum
Our aim is for children at Manor Field Juniors to:
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See themselves as designers by understanding the process of DT and the importance of purpose and audience;
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Be able to use fundamental DT life skills with fluency and accuracy;
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Have an understanding of food processes, preparation, safety and costing to support them in the wider world.
Children will leave our school having a basic understanding of the design process and are able to use this when creating a product. They will have experienced how to keep themselves safe when using a range of equipment and have an idea how designers have shaped the world. They will have some cooking skills, understanding how to be safe in the kitchen and how to create a balanced diet. They will have experienced maths in a real-life context to buy ingredients.