Design & Technology
'The best designs come from taking a close look at the world around us and seeing things differently' James Dyson
At Hucknall Flying High, we believe that every child has the power to create. We believe that with a well crafted Design and Technology curriculum and authentic outcomes, we can provide children with plentiful opportunities to embark on their own creative journey. Our curriculum strives to develop our children's confidence, skills and talents to empower them to create aspirational, authentic outcomes where they trust their ideas, express themselves and endlessly create.
Further to this, our 6A curriculum principles underpin the foundations of our Design & Technology curriculum with the children experiencing academic rigour through the planned content, authentic experiences and connections with designers, engineers and inventors. Alongside, active learning through hands-on exploration of tools, existing products and materials whilst opportunities are built in for the children to apply their learning to an authentic purpose and finally provide on-going assessment through self and peer critique throughout.
Our aims are to ensure that all pupils:
- view D&T as a creative process: gaining knowledge from experts, existing products, exploring new ideas and using a range of materials
- produce creative work, exploring, recording and documenting their experiences
- evaluate and analyse existing products using creative language and vocabulary
- grow in confidence, develop resilience and become opinion-formers
- know about designers, engineers and inventors and understand the historical and cultural development of their existing products.
Because of this we have developed a sequence known as the 'Creative Thinking Sequence for D&T' to ensure our termly projects follow a journey of learning. These are focused on nurturing creativity and the critical thinking process involved in developing designers and exceptional work that is filled with creativity.
To summarise, the sequence follows five steps that allow the children to:
- Use purpose to identify what you will make, for who, and for what purpose.
- Research existing products, how mechanisms work, what your audience wants.
- Design new products against a set criteria.
- Make products using a range of materials, tools and skills.
- Use critique to make improvements throughout.