Impact

They will use their creativity, resourcefulness and imagination to explore the past, present and future of design. The subject also assists children to practice the skill of working collaboratively including delegation and shared leadership. Carefully planned and resourced units of learning will allow pupils at Thomas Jones to immerse themselves in these inspiring, rigorous and practical experiences.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children are actively encouraged to explore their practical ‘making’ and design skills through a combination of child-led and adult-directed activities. These include sewing and weaving, junk-modelling, building using construction kits (for example, Lego, Duplo and K-Nex), cookery, baking and other aspects of creative play through one of the 7 areas of learning; ‘Expressive arts and design’. In this area children develop their imagination, creativity and their ability to use media and materials. Children do this in a range of ways including singing songs and making music, dancing, playing with colours, textures and designs. This emerging knowledge and understanding can be used to explore crucial early design and making skills. By the time children are in Reception, they will be increasingly able to use what they have learnt to independently explore their own practical and creative design ideas, including making for a purpose or for a particular person.

The early learning goals in the EYFS aim to guide children in their exploration and experimentation of materials, tools, colours and textures. Through this, they can begin to attribute meaning to the models and designs they make.

Key Stage 1

In Years 1 and 2, children begin to design for a given purpose, or for a specified person or group of people – the user. Children learn to use their knowledge of existing products to help inspire their own designs, and be will introduced to some key designers and products through time. They will be introduced to the ‘design cycle’, and will start to communicate their ideas through talking and drawing. They will be supported in using simple design criteria to develop these ideas. Children will begin to say how their products will work, and how they will make them suitable for their users.

At Thomas Jones, Key Stage 1 pupils learn core foundation skills across the key areas of cookery, construction and textiles, for example: threading a needle, basic sewing stitches, cutting and joining materials, strengthening basic structures, and measuring and cutting ingredients. How to be safe and hygienic whilst using specific tools will be taught and revisited consistently throughout all units.

Throughout the design cycle, children will be encouraged to talk about their design ideas and what they are making. By the end of the Key Stage, children will be making simple judgements about their products using specific design criteria, and suggesting how their products or designs could be improved.

KS1 Design Technology Curriculum Map

Key Stage 2

In Years 3 to 6, children continue to immerse themselves in practical textiles, construction and cookery sessions, building upon their understanding and experiences of design from Key Stage 1. Children will become increasingly confident in understanding and working through the ‘design cycle’, and this will form the basis of all teaching. They will continue to design based on a target user and will learn how to gather information about the user’s wants and needs, using this to inform their designs. By Upper Key Stage 2, this research will take the form of surveys, interviews and web-based investigation. Children will be able to indicate key features of their design that will appeal to their intended users, and explain how particular parts of their products work.

Building upon the foundation of core skills taught in Key Stage 1, pupils will begin to use a wider range of materials and tools with improved precision and deftness. They will be introduced to techniques that involve a number of steps, and will be taught how to select suitable tools and materials to suit particular methods. Building upon the skills taught in previous years, children will be sewing, finishing textiles, assembling and joining components and preparing ingredients with increasing accuracy. By the end of the Key Stage, pupils will be demonstrating resourcefulness when tackling practical problems.

Children will use design criteria to evaluate their completed products, identifying strengths and areas for development in their own outcomes, as well as those of their peers. By Upper Key Stage 2, children will consider the views of others, including their target users, to improve and amend their design ideas. By the end of the key stage, children will able to assess the quality of their designs, including their manufacture and fitness for purpose. They will explore important and impactful designers and existing products throughout history, consider other areas of design such as sustainability and cost-effectiveness, and begin to think about the impact products may have beyond their intended purpose.

KS2 Design Technology Curriculum Map