Design and Technology

What does Design and Technology look like at Brill?

At Brill Church of England School, we believe that Design and Technology gives children the opportunity to imagine, design, create and improve solutions to real problems.

We want children to become creative and practical thinkers who are confident to experiment, take appropriate risks and learn when things do not work first time.

Design and Technology forms part of our Brill Horizons curriculum and is supported by Cornerstones Maestro, providing a carefully sequenced progression of knowledge and skills from the Early Years through to Year 6.

Throughout their journey at Brill, children learn to design, make and evaluate purposeful products, drawing upon knowledge from across the curriculum and developing the technical understanding needed to turn their ideas into reality.

INTENT

Our Design and Technology curriculum is ambitious for every child.

We want children to understand that the objects, products and systems around them have been designed by people to fulfil particular purposes and meet particular needs.

Children are encouraged to identify problems, consider users, generate ideas and use their knowledge and creativity to develop possible solutions.

Our curriculum develops both:

Design and technical knowledge – understanding materials, structures, mechanisms, systems, food and the principles that enable products to work;

and

Practical and disciplinary knowledge – understanding how designers investigate, generate ideas, make purposeful choices, create products, test them and use evaluation to improve their work.

Through our Design and Technology curriculum, we aim for children to:

develop creative and innovative thinking;
design purposeful products for particular users and needs;
communicate their ideas clearly;
select appropriate tools, materials and techniques;
develop increasingly accurate and controlled practical skills;
understand how structures, mechanisms and systems work;
make informed choices about materials and components;
test, evaluate and improve their designs;
learn from products and designers that already exist;
develop an understanding of food, nutrition and cooking;
apply knowledge from mathematics, science, computing, art and other curriculum areas; and
develop resilience when a design or product does not work as intended.

We want children to understand that successful designing rarely involves getting everything right the first time.

Testing, adapting and improving are part of the process.

Our children are encouraged to be bold in their ideas, brave enough to try them and Brill-iant in learning from what happens next.

IMPLEMENTATION

Brill Horizons and Cornerstones Maestro

Design and Technology is taught through our Brill Horizons curriculum, supported by Cornerstones Maestro.

Learning is carefully sequenced so that children’s technical knowledge and practical skills build progressively from their earliest experiences of designing and making in the Early Years through to increasingly sophisticated projects in Key Stage 2.

Our Brill Horizons Big Ideas make particularly strong connections with Design and Technology.

Children explore:

Creativity – developing and communicating original ideas;

Investigation – exploring products, materials and possible solutions;

Materials – understanding their properties and selecting them appropriately;

Processes – learning how things are designed, constructed and improved;

Comparison – evaluating different products and approaches; and

Change – adapting and improving designs in response to testing and evaluation.

Children revisit these ideas in increasingly challenging contexts as they progress through school.

Design, Make, Evaluate

At the heart of Design and Technology at Brill is an iterative process of:

Design → Make → Evaluate → Improve

Children are presented with purposeful design opportunities and encouraged to consider who they are designing for and what their product needs to achieve.

Design

Children investigate existing products and use their developing knowledge to generate ideas.

Depending upon their age, they communicate these through discussion, drawings, annotated sketches, diagrams, models, prototypes and increasingly detailed design specifications.

Make

Children select appropriate materials, components, tools and techniques to turn their designs into products.

They learn how to work with increasing accuracy, independence and control, while understanding the importance of using tools and equipment safely.

Evaluate

Children test their finished and developing products against their original purpose and design criteria.

They consider what works well, what could work better and what they would change.

Importantly, evaluation does not simply happen at the end. Children are encouraged to continually reflect, adapt and improve throughout the design process.

Technical Knowledge

As children progress through Brill, they develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how and why products work.

Their learning includes opportunities to explore areas such as:

structures and how they can be strengthened;
mechanisms and mechanical systems;
movement;
electrical systems where appropriate;
materials and their properties;
joining, shaping and finishing techniques; and
how different components can be combined to create a functioning product.

Children learn to draw upon this technical knowledge when making design decisions rather than simply constructing something from a set of instructions.

Our aim is for children increasingly to be able to explain:

“I chose this because…”

Practical Skills and Making

Children need opportunities to actually make things.

Throughout their time at Brill, they develop practical skills through working with a range of materials, tools and equipment.

Teachers explicitly model techniques and safe working practices before children apply and refine these skills with increasing independence.

Children learn that successful making requires care, accuracy, patience and perseverance.

We value the process as much as the finished product. Something that does not work as intended provides an opportunity to investigate why, make changes and try again.

Food and Nutrition

Food technology is an important part of Design and Technology.

Children develop an age-appropriate understanding of food, nutrition and healthy choices, alongside practical experience of preparing and cooking a range of dishes.

They learn where food comes from, explore ingredients and develop increasingly confident and safe food-preparation skills.

As children progress, they are encouraged to make informed choices about ingredients and consider factors such as taste, nutrition, purpose and the needs of the intended consumer.

We want children to leave Brill with practical food knowledge and skills that they can use in their everyday lives.

Learning from Designers and Existing Products

Before children can design effectively, they need opportunities to investigate how other people have solved problems.

Children explore and evaluate existing products, considering questions such as:

Who is this for?
What is its purpose?
How does it work?
Why might these materials have been chosen?
What makes it successful?
How could it be improved?

Where appropriate, children encounter the work of significant designers, engineers, inventors and innovators.

This helps them recognise that the designed world around them has been shaped by human creativity, knowledge, problem-solving and continual improvement.

Creativity and Innovation

Design and Technology provides children with an important opportunity to combine knowledge with imagination.

We do not want every child’s solution to look exactly the same.

Once children have the necessary knowledge and skills, we want them to make decisions, explore possibilities and develop their own responses to a design challenge.

Children learn to balance creativity with practical considerations – understanding that an innovative idea also needs to work for its intended purpose and user.

This helps children become increasingly independent and thoughtful designers.

An Inclusive Design and Technology Curriculum

Design and Technology is for every child at Brill.

Teachers use appropriate adaptations, modelling, resources, equipment and scaffolding so that all pupils, including those with SEND and additional needs, can participate meaningfully in designing and making.

Practical learning can provide children with different opportunities to demonstrate their strengths, creativity and understanding.

Children who develop skills and knowledge rapidly are challenged through increasing independence, more sophisticated design decisions, technical complexity and deeper evaluation, rather than simply being asked to make more.

We want every child to experience the satisfaction of seeing an idea become something real.

Design and Technology Across Brill Horizons

Design and Technology naturally draws upon learning from across the curriculum.

Children use mathematics to measure, calculate and work accurately. Science helps them understand materials, forces, electricity and the physical principles behind their designs. Computing can support the design and control of systems, while Art and Design develops creativity and visual communication.

English enables children to research, discuss, explain and evaluate their ideas.

Through Brill Horizons, children learn that these areas of knowledge can work together to solve problems.

This is one of the most powerful aspects of Design and Technology: children take what they know and use it to create something new.

IMPACT

By the end of their Brill journey, we want our children to see themselves as creative, capable and resilient designers and makers.

We want children to leave Brill able to:

identify a purpose, problem or need;
design products with a clear user in mind;
generate, develop and communicate ideas;
draw upon appropriate technical knowledge;
select suitable materials, tools and components;
use practical skills with increasing accuracy and independence;
work safely and responsibly;
create purposeful and functional products;
test their ideas and products;
evaluate against clear criteria;
identify improvements and adapt their work;
understand that unsuccessful attempts are an important part of designing;
apply knowledge from other curriculum areas; and
approach practical problems with creativity, confidence and perseverance.

Most importantly, we want children to leave Brill understanding that they have the ability to identify a problem and do something about it.

We want them to look at the designed world around them with curiosity – asking “How does that work?”, “Why was it made that way?” and, perhaps most importantly, “Could I make it better?”

We want every Brill child to have the confidence to turn ideas into possibilities and possibilities into reality.

Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Brill-iant.