Ashurst CE Aided Primary School
Design Technology Policy
Aims and Objectives- Our Intent
The study of Design Technology (DT) at Ashurst CE Aided Primary School develops children’s skills, concepts and knowledge and prepares them to take part in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. Creative thinking encourages children to make positive changes to their quality of life. The subject encourages children to become autonomous and creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team. It enables them to identify needs and opportunities and to respond by developing ideas and eventually making products and systems. Through the study of Design Technology they combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, as well as functions and industrial practices. This allows them to reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and its impacts. Design Technology helps all children to become discriminating and informed consumers and potential innovators.in a visual or tactile form.
It is our aim for all children at Ashurst to:
• develop imaginative thinking
- be enthusiastic about solving problems, finding solutions and appreciating ‘happy accidents’.
• develop critical thinking to talk about what they like and dislike when designing and making
• explore how things work, and to draw and model their ideas
• be able to select appropriate tools and techniques for making a product, whilst following safe procedures
• explore attitudes towards the constructed world and how we live and work within it
- develop an understanding of technological processes, products, and their manufacture, and their contribution to our society
Teaching and Learning Approaches – Our Implementation
The Early Years Foundation Stage
During the Early Years, children experience a range of activities that encourage exploration, observation, problem solving, critical thinking and discussion. These early experiences include asking questions about how things work, investigating and using a variety of construction kits, materials, tools and products, developing making skills and handling appropriate tools and construction material safely and with increasing control. These activities, both indoors and outdoors, invite the children’s interest and curiosity.
Within KS1 DT seeks to expand children’s creativity and imagination through providing design activities that relate to the children’s own identity and experiences. Children use their knowledge of existing products for ideas and develop these ideas by talking and drawing. They explore the simple working characteristics of materials and components and make simple judgements about their products and ideas against design criteria.
DT within KS2 aims to further develop the children’s creativity and imagination by building on their knowledge, skills and understanding of materials and processes, through providing more complex activities. Children gather information about needs and wants of particular individuals and groups. They begin to explain their choice of materials and components and link them to both the functional and aesthetic properties and order the main stages of making. They develop the ability to decide if a product is innovative and how sustainable the materials used are.
DT Planning
The school has a long term DT plan which is taught through a topic approach, this based on the Kapow scheme of work. Our curriculum is carefully balanced and planned to engage and excite all our learners so that they learn a range of skills, concepts, attitudes, techniques and methods of working. Our long-term and medium-term plans map out the themes covered each term for each key stage. These plans show what we will teach and ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of DT skills across each key stage.
SEND Provision and Equal Opportunities
There are children of differing ability at Ashurst. We recognise this fact and provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies which are differentiated by task, expected outcome and/or support from peers or adults.
We achieve this through a range of strategies including; setting common tasks that are open-ended and can have a variety of results; setting tasks of increasing difficulty where not all children complete all tasks; grouping children by ability and setting different tasks for each group; providing a range of challenges through the provision of different resources; using additional adults to support the work of individual children or small groups.
Children identified as needing extra support will be given appropriate help in the classroom to access the research aspects of the DT curriculum as indicated by their Individual Support Plan.
Outcomes – Our Impact
At Ashurst we strive to enable our children to be fully literate and articulate; children who are prepared for their secondary education and later life. Through engaging lessons, we aim to foster a love of creative problem solving, evaluation and an enjoyment of learning. Ashurst children are encouraged to have a growth mind-set and to develop the skills of perseverance and resilience. The teaching of DT offers opportunities to support the social development of our children through the way we expect them to work with each other in lessons. Groupings allow children to work together and give them the opportunity to discuss their ideas and feelings about their own work and the work of others. Through their collaborative and co-operative work across a range of activities and experiences in Design Technology, the children develop respect for the abilities of other children and a better understanding of themselves. They also develop a respect for the environment, for their own health and safety and for that of others.
All children deserve the opportunity to experience happy, fulfilled and successful lives. At Ashurst CE Aided Primary we acknowledge that mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, in the same way as physical health.
At Ashurst CE Aided Primary we nurture our bodies, minds, each other and our environment. By providing opportunities for learning outdoors, we aim to connect children and staff with their natural environment. We embrace the benefits this brings for mental health and physical and emotional wellbeing.
We promote pupils’ self-control and ability to self-regulate and recommend strategies for doing so. This will enable them to become confident in their ability to achieve well and persevere even when they encounter setbacks or when their goals are distant, and to respond calmly and rationally to setbacks and challenges. This integrated, whole-school approach to the teaching and promotion of health and wellbeing has the potential to positively impact on behaviour and attainment.
Pupils are also taught about the benefits of hobbies, interests and participation in their own communities. We encourage children to recognise that they are social beings and that spending time with others, taking opportunities to consider the needs of others and practising service to others, including in organised and structured activities and groups, are beneficial for health and wellbeing. Engaging in activities that promote mental well-being can indirectly contribute to improving overall health by alleviating stress, improving sleep patterns, improving attention span and boosting the immune system.
Children are inspired to follow their dreams when they leave school, whether that be to secure a job, begin vocational training or go on to further education.
At Ashurst CE Aided primary School we recognise that we have a shared responsibility to prepare our children to achieve mental, physical and economic wellbeing in a local, national and global context.
Design and Technology helps develop children’s skills through collaborative working and problem-solving, and knowledge in design, materials, structures, mechanisms and electrical control. They are encouraged to be creative and innovative and are actively encouraged to think about important issues such as sustainability and enterprise. This involvement with wider issues and the wider community has been shown to have a positive influence on personal well-being.
Design Technology has a positive impact on our children’s personal development, technical understanding and provides them with the skills needed to perform daily tasks confidently. The skills learned in Design Technology support children to grow through learning and experience. It encourages them to be resilient, resourceful, innovative and enterprising, our curriculum supports children to be mindful of the needs of others, their cultures and the wider environment.
Cultural Capital:
At Ashurst we aim to support every child to gain the confidence and the ability to understand and contribute to a varied cultural awareness. We believe that taking children’s learning experiences beyond what they already know is a fundamental part of becoming an educated citizen in society.
DT contributes to this through developing children’s awareness and understanding of the products and merchandise they use and choose and encourages an appreciation of the value of differences and similarities. At Ashurst children are encouraged to develop a sense of responsibility in following safe procedures when making things. They also learn about health and healthy diets. Their work encourages them to be responsible and to set targets to meet deadlines, and they learn through their understanding of personal hygiene, how to prevent disease from spreading when working with food.
A variety of experiences teaches them to appreciate that all people are equally important, that different people have different preferences and that the needs of individuals are not the same as the needs of groups.
Resources
Trays are maintained by the subject leader in the resource’s cupboard. The trays are labelled and organised in Key Stage units. Missing or broken resources should be reported to the subject leader as soon as possible and not put back broken, as this could cause injury. There are additional resources in the Y5Y6 classroom cupboards and staff cloakroom.
Assessment:
Each child has a DT book which serves as a cumulative record of their work and is passed on to the next teacher at the end of each year/ key stage. The children are encouraged to evaluate their own work against the design criteria and to suggest improvements and adaptations.
All children are tracked using the in-school tracking system. After each unit of work, class teachers assess children based on their DT skills, knowledge and understanding linked to the objectives in the National Curriculum.
Roles and Responsibilities
Subject Leader - To have an impact on raising standards of attainment for DT across the whole school.
- Adapt and use the Programme of Study for DT across the whole school to meet the needs of our children.
- To monitor the whole schools and individual needs.
- To be able to assess individual professional development opportunities and needs.
- To monitor and maintain high quality resources.
- To maintain an overview of current trends and developments within the subject.
- To ensure, together with the Head Teacher an effective programme of moderation and assessments.
- To ensure a regular and effective programme of analysis of short-term planning is in place.
Monitoring and Evaluation
This policy will be reviewed by the DT coordinator, in consultation with the staff, as and when elements of DT are identified or prioritised within the School Development Plan.
This policy was last reviewed in: September 2025
This policy is to be reviewed in : September 2027