Design Technology is where we learn to be inventors and innovators. It equips us with the sklls needed to solve problems and to adapt quickly to the challenges that confront us in a rapidly changing world. It also provides a huge range of opportunities to develop our learning powers, particularly curiosity, co-operation and perseverance. To find out more about what we teach and how learnng fits together, take a look at our skills and knowledge progression:  

• Skills and Knowledge Progression : Design Technology
   

The aim of our DT curriculum

At Bedwell, we want our children to become confident, independent problem solvers, who view challenges with curiosity and a ’what about trying…’ mindset - both at school and in their wider life beyond. 

When presented with practical problems, our children will be able to combine their skills and prior knowledge to come up with a range of possible solutions, and then use their experience and understanding to focus in on what they consider to be the best design choice. They will have the practical and technical skills needed to put that idea into practice - and the wherewithal to overcome whatever barriers may present themselves on the way to a completed solution to their initial problem. 

To that end, children in every class will be given opportunities to explore new materials, tools, mechanisms and designs, and will be encouraged to explore all of these to find both their potential and their limitations. Each unit of work will have a clear, practical goal as its outcome, accompanied by design criteria against which finished products can be tested and evaluated. Our children will also learn how to use these materials and tools safely and responsibly, and over time will begin to consider the impact that products (and material choices) can have on the wider world.

Experiences we want every child to have at Bedwell:

• Produce something of their own that makes them go, “Wow!” 
• Have opportunities to use things they have made - recognising that their work really is purposeful and practical 
• Take things to bits to find out how they’re held together and how they work 
• See something they have constructed move under its own power 
• Use saws, hammers, hand drills and other ‘grown-up’ tools (and know how to use them safely) 
• Build something bigger than them

This term's learning

DT Week - We spotted a free space on the school calendar in the last full week of term, so we decided to turn it into DT Week across the school! Every year group picked a project to focus on:

• In Years 1 and 2, we chose to make beach huts, linking in with our Seaside topic. We learnt to saw and glue wood to make solid frames, which we then decorated. 
• In Years 3 and 4, we explored pneumatic systems - linking plastic syringes with tubes to make things move using air pressure. We chose how to apply these to our final machines, making everything from SpongeBob leaping out from his house to rockets blasting off into space!
• In Year 5, we built model cars, using circuits, switches and pulleys to create vehicles that whizzed across the hall floor. 
• Finally, in Year 6 we built tents for a festival trip, constructing strong structures that would stand up to wind and rain.