Design and Technology
Design Technology At Giffard Park Primary School, we believe it is important for our Design and technology curriculum to be progressive and build on prior knowledge. To enable us to do this, each year group completes a cooking and nutrition, textiles (or digital world) and structures unit at least once a year. In line with the three key stages of the design process, each unit includes a design, make and evaluate stage as well as including technical knowledge and vocabulary which is revisited throughout the school and developed across the key stages. To see the breakdown of all units taught, see below for each year group.
Foundation
During Autumn term, Reception children will be cooking pumpkin soup. They will learn about seasonal vegetables and the difference between fruits and vegetables. The children will then develop a pumpkin soup recipe using their knowledge of vegetables. They will then make their soup by cutting up the vegetables and pumpkins. When the soup has been tasted they will evaluate the soup and design packaging for their soup. During Spring term, Reception children will be making a bookmark. The children will learn how to weave with a variety of materials, such a ribbon, paper, and thread. They will develop their sewing skills by creating a simple design that can be sewn onto hessian. The children will evaluate their final product against their design.
During Spring term, Reception children will explore junk modelling to make a house. They will explore different resources used to make junk models and develop their cutting skills. They will design what they would like to make and then use the skills they have learnt to make their junk modelling models. They will evaluate their final product against their drawn designs.
Year 1
During Autumn term, Year 1 children will design and make a windmill using a design criterion to the needs of a customer. They will explore how to make a structure and how to attach sails to their supporting structure. The children will learn to evaluate their work and comment on how they could improve their windmill.
During Spring term, Year 1 children will design and make a hand puppet. They will explore how to join materials together using a variety of methods. The children will design their puppet using a template and evaluate this against their final product. They will join two pieces of fabric together to make their puppet and then evaluate their puppet to see if it matches their design.
During Summer term, Year 1 children will design and make a fruit and vegetable smoothie. The children will identify if a food is a fruit or vegetable and explain why they know this. They will explore how plants grow and which part of the plant we can eat. The children will taste and compare fruits and vegetables and make choices as to which ones they would like to use in their smoothie. They will then prepare their fruits and vegetables to make a smoothie.
Year 2
During Autumn term, Year 2 children will make a chair for baby bear from ‘Goldilocks and the three bears.’ The children will explore features of structures and the stability of different shapes. They will design and make a structure according to design criteria. The children will produce a finished structure and evaluate its strength, stiffness, and stability.
During Spring term, Year 2 children will explore wheel mechanisms and design a Ferris wheel. They will select appropriate materials for their design. They will build and test their moving wheel and adapt their designs.
During Summer term, Year 2 children will design and make a moving monster. They will look at objects and understand how they move. They will design a monster suitable for children, which satisfy most of the design criteria. The children will select and assemble materials to create their planned monster features.
Year 3
During Autumn term, Year 3 children will be developing their cooking skills to make a tart. The children will explain why food comes from different places around the world and explain the benefits of using seasonal foods. They will develop cutting and peeling skills. The children will evaluate seasonal ingredients and decide which to use in their final product. They will design a mock-up using specific criteria and adapt their recipe where necessary. The children will evaluate their dish suggesting improvements.
During Spring term, Year 3 children will me designing and making light up wearables. They will develop a design criterion, use code to program and control a product. They will develop and communicate their ideas as well as developing their ideas through computer-aided design. The children will make their design and evaluate it to improve it based on feedback.
During Summer term, Year 3 children will be designing and making a castle. They will draw and label a simple castle that includes the most common features. The children will recognise that a castle is made up of multiple 3D shapes. They will design a castle with key features which satisfy a given purpose. They will score or cut along lines on the net of a 2D shape and use glue to securely assemble geometric shapes. The children will utilise skills to build a complex structure from simple geometric shapes. They will evaluate their work by answering simple questions.
Year 4
During Autumn Term, Year 4 children will design and make a pavilion. They will produce a range of free-standing frame structures of different shapes and sizes. The children will design a pavilion that is strong, stable, and aesthetically pleasing. They will select appropriate materials and construction techniques to create a stable, free- standing frame structure and then select appropriate materials and techniques to add cladding to their pavilion.
During Spring term, Year 4 children will design and make a sling shot car. They will work independently to produce an accurate, functioning car chassis. They will then design a shape that is suitable for the project. The children will attempt to reduce air resistance through the design of the shape. They will produce panels that will fit the chassis and can be assembled effectively using the tabs they have designed. They will then conduct a trial accurately and draw conclusions and improvements from the results.
During Summer term, Year 4 children will be designing and making a torch. They will identify electrical products and explain why they are useful. The children will help to make a working switch. They will identify the features of a torch and how it works and describe what makes a torch successful. The children will create suitable designs that fit the success criteria and their own design criteria, then create a functioning torch with a switch according to their design.
Year 5
During Autumn term, Year 5 children will be designing and making a doodler. They will identify simple circuit components (battery, bulb, and switch) with a basic explanation of their function. They will explain that a series circuit is assembled in a loop to allow the electricity to flow along one path and describe a motor as a circuit component that changes electrical energy into movement. They will remove and replace different parts of a Doodler, as part of a team and suggest ways to switch the configuration to amend the form or function of the Doodler. The children will explain, in an investigation report, each of the changes they made and the effect this had on the Doodler’s ability to draw scribbles (function) and appearance (form). They will develop design criteria with consideration for the target user, the purpose of their Doodler, a key function and the Doodler’s form and final appearance (e.g. fun, bright, soft).
During Spring term, Year 5 children will be designing and making a pop-up book. The children will produce a suitable plan for each page of their book. They will produce the structure of the book and assemble the components necessary for all their structures/mechanisms. They will hide the mechanical elements with more layers using spacers where needed. The children will use a range of mechanisms and structures to illustrate their story and make it interactive for the users and use appropriate materials and captions to illustrate the story.
During Summer term, Year 5 children will be designing and adapting their own recipe. The children will describe the process of beef production. They will research a traditional recipe and amend it and add nutritional value to a recipe by selecting ingredients. The children will prepare and cook a version of Bolognese sauce.
Year 6
During Autumn term, Year 6 children will be designing and making a waistcoat. They will be considering a range of factors in their design criteria and use this to create a waistcoat design. The children will use a template to mark and cut out a design and use a running stitch to join fabric to make a functional waistcoat. They will attach a secure fastening, as well as decorative objects. The children will evaluate their final product.
During Spring term, Year 6 children will be designing and making model playground apparatus. The children will create five apparatus designs, applying the design criteria to their work. They will make suitable changes to their work after peer evaluation. The children will make three different structures from their plans using the materials available and complete their structures, improving the quality of their rough versions and applying some cladding to a few areas. The children will secure their apparatus to a base and make a range of landscape features using a variety of materials which will enhance their apparatus.
During Summer term, Year 6 children will be designing and making a multifunctional tool to fit a design brief. The children will incorporate key information from a client’s design request such as ‘multifunctional’ and ‘compact’ in their design brief. They will write a program that displays an arrow to indicate cardinal compass directions with an ‘On start’ loading screen. The children will identify errors (bugs) in the code and suggest ways to fix (debug) them. They will self and peer evaluate a product concept against a list of design criteria with basic statements. The children will identify key industries that use 3D CAD modelling and why. They will recall and describe the name and use of key tools used in Tinkercad (CAD) software and combine more than one object to develop a finished 3D CAD model in Tinkercad. The children will complete a product pitch plan that includes key information.
