Overview - Primary D&T

Design & Technology offer opportunities for children to:

• Develop their designing and making skills;

• Develop knowledge and understanding;

• Develop their capability to create high quality products through combining their designing and making skills with knowledge and understanding

• Nurture creativity and innovation through designing and making

• Explore values about attitudes to the made world and how we live and work within it

• Develop an understanding of technological processes and their contribution to our society

In Design and Technology, children acquire and apply knowledge and understanding of:

• Materials and components

• Mechanisms and control systems

• Structures

• Existing products

• Quality

• Health and Safety

Children:

• Develop designing skills Acquire and refine the practical skills associated with making, including working with materials and components Apply scientific skills, for example, as predicting and fair testing Apply mathematical skills, for example, measuring to an appropriate number of decimal places Apply information technology skills, for example, making things happen by the use of control;Apply art skills, for example, in the use of finishing skills

Schools in England and Wales follow guidelines issued by the Government. All schools are required to follow a National Curriculum with Design and Technology is a Foundation Subject, compulsory at Key Stage One, Two and Three.

The Programmes of Study are divided into twenty-four Schemes of Work published by QCA/DfES, which may be used at a school's discretion. If a school does not use a QCA Scheme of Work, then the school must show that it is still teaching a range of knowledge, skills and concepts appropriate for the subject.

The Design & Technology Association has updated and added to the units of work and produced a Moving Forward pack for those wishing to adopt the Scheme of Work.