Design and Technology at Thames

At Thames, we take the ‘whole child’ into account. We want our pupils to leave school with excellent subject knowledge and skills, but also to leave as caring, respectful, tolerant and enthusiastic pupils, who are well-equipped to become good citizens. The curriculum is designed to ensure that our pupils experience a wide breadth of study and have, by the end of each stage, remembered an ambitious body of substantive and disciplinary knowledge. Through our DT curriculum, pupils will be inspired by engineers, designers, chefs and architects to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms and food products with a real life purpose.

The Design and Technology curriculum is designed to be taught in termly ‘themes’ right across school which will allow staff and pupils to share in a collective exploration of a particular design form, for example mechanisms or structures. Design technology will form a shadow offer, sitting in tandem with the Art and Design curriculum allowing for schematic knowledge to develop across the disciplines. When DT is the dominant subject, Art and Design will sit as a shadow curriculum beneath ensuring that the full range of subjects skills and knowledge is on offer at all moments and recognising that lots of the transformative competencies, skills and cognitive approaches are similar in both subjects both in substantive and disciplinary form.  

The thematic approach to the curriculum offer is beneficial because it should allow for work to be gathered and “galleried/ showcased” at the end of each half term and progression in knowledge, skill and understanding should be visible from reception to year 6. Using a central thematic approach also allows for a sharing of ideas, resources and stories and creates a more interdependent and collaborative curriculum which is thoughtfully connected and visibly sequenced for mastery. 

All teaching of DT follows the design, make and evaluate cycle. Each unit is rooted in knowledge, techniques and processes.  The design process is linked to real life, alongside relevant contexts that give meaning to learning. While designing and creating, pupils are given choice and a range of tools to choose freely from. To evaluate, pupils are able to evaluate their own products against a design criteria, working in collaboration with their peers.  

The use of a sketchbook is pivotal to the delivery of these subjects as it provides a platform for creative expression – pupils should understand that DT and art and design are all creative processes and should be planned, explored and experimented with in a safe space. pupils should know that designers and artists use sketchbooks to aid the creative process.

Purposeful review and critique: talking around ideas, exploration, choice, opinion, analysis and evaluation are central to these subjects and should be visible in all of the processes of learning, as part of the discipline pupils should understand the value of both forming opinions and having informed opinions. (Critical evaluation and internalising personal preferences should be examined as part of the disciplinary knowledge acquired in this curriculum area).

Evidence and celebration – whilst a perfect product is not the aim, pupils will celebrate their creativity and have a platform to showcase their work – pupils will understand that part of the discipline is being original, pushing boundaries and showcasing work for appreciation or review. 

Inspiration – fundamental to success in this curriculum is using inspiration from others – pupils will understand that taking inspiration from multiple sources including their environment, the natural world and the work of others is part of the disciplinary knowledge of this subject. 

Overarching questions – every topic has an overarching question that will be explored and answered through the problem solving and creative process – as part of the development of disciplinary knowledge pupils will be encouraged to ask questions, take risks and find solutions. 

Problem solving and planning – the process, exploration, trial and error and design journey is paramount in this curriculum and the majority of learning will be placed here. pupils will know that experimentation and adaptation are key features of the disciplinary knowledge of this subject.