In the beginning, when God created the world, he created human beings. He created us all to have different gifts and talents. By using these gifts and talents for the good of others, we are pleasing God. Throughout the iterative design process in D&T, children wonder why something works or happens, they have to seek within for answers to the problems, aim high to find a solution whilst their ultimate goal is to serve others and please God.

‘Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.’ Scott Adams

At Salesbury, we believe that Design and Technology should be an exciting and creative journey! We want children to experience the iterative design process, from identifying the problem right through to finding a solution to the problem, enabling them to feel a sense of pride and achievement. In Design and Technology, we encourage creative thinking, making mistakes, taking risks and having the desire to continuously improve. Our aim is to provide opportunities for children to develop their designing and making skills in order to create quality products. We endeavour to develop children’s skills and knowledge in design, structures, mechanisms, electrical systems and a range of materials, including food. At Salesbury, we strive to inspire the designers of the future! The Continuing Professional Development of our staff allows good practice, resources and displays to be shared, through the Blippit & Yammer apps, staff notice boards and in meetings. This enables Design and Technology to develop successfully across the school.

At the start of the focus, a ‘hook’ is used to launch each Design and Technology biased unit to engage children and act as a stimulus for their learning journey. Children are encouraged to think creatively and ask questions as well as to recall what they already know. Teachers then use this information as well as using Blooms Taxonomy to plan the learning questions and activities within the units of work. At the end of the unit, an ‘outcome’ consolidates the skills and learning which have taken place.

Each Design and Technology focus begins with learning key skills such as peeling, grating or cutting with a saw which they will use in their project. After this, children are given a purposeful and open design brief which allows them the freedom to think creatively and have their own ideas. Throughout the iterative design process, children will find a problem, research solutions to the problem, design and make their own solution to the problem, evaluate their design and continue to improve it until finally, they will create their own, well finished, individual solution to the problem and so a Growth Mindset is required.

Each classroom develops a working wall, displaying key vocabulary, knowledge and skills to support curriculum content. The use of a WAGOLL gives children a starting point and something to aim towards. The use of Knowledge Organisers ensure that children recall and build on previous learning whilst providing parents and carers with the coverage within each unit. Each knowledge organiser outlines the knowledge, vocabulary, definitions and community links being taught. Extra-curricular provision includes a model building club for the infants and a STEAM club for junior children.

Ongoing subject assessment, such as higher order questioning from Bloom’s Taxonomy, observations, discussions and annotations, is used to check the knowledge and understanding of individual children. Instant feedback is provided to the children through verbal comments and the use of yellow boxes on written work. This use of ‘active marking’ ensures that children instantly improve their work. Work highlighted in pink shows children their successes and work highlighted in green indicates something that needs correcting or explaining further. Subject assessments are completed at the end of each topic using the National Curriculum. This information is passed onto parents in the form of termly and annual reports and parents’ evenings. Parents are regularly updated about the progress of Design and Technology via Class Facebook pages and the school webpage. As well as pupils’ Design and Technology work being celebrated in class on working walls and on displays, it is also celebrated at the end of topics where children are able to showcase their products to their parents or the community.