Design Technology at The Royal School

At The Royal School our Design and Technology scheme of work aims to inspire the children to be innovative and creative thinkers who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation and evaluation. We want children to develop the confidence to take risks, through drafting design concepts, modelling and testing and to be reflective learners who evaluate their work and the work of others. Through our scheme of work, we aim to build an awareness of the impact of design technology on our lives and encourage children to become resourceful, enterprising citizens who will have the skills to contribute to future design advancements. 

At The Royal School we use Kapow Primary's Design and Technology scheme of work as the basis of our design and technology curriculum which aligns with the National Curriculum and has four key strands running through it. These strands are:-

• Design
• Make
• Evaluate
• Technical Knowledge

Cooking and nutrition is given a particular focus in the National Curriculum and is one of the six areas that the children will revist through their time at The Royal School:

• Cooking and Nutrition
• Mechanisms/Mechanical systems
• Structures
• Textiles
• Electrical systems (KS2)
• Digital World (KS2)

The scheme of work has been designed with a clear progression of skills and knowledge as a spiral curriculum with the following key principles in mind:

Cyclical: Children return to the key areas again and again during their time at The Royal School.

Increasing Depth: Each time a key area is revisited it is covered with greater complexity.

Prior Knowledge: Upon returning to each key area, prior knowledge is utilised so children can build upon previous foundations, rather than starting again. 

Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including practical hands-on, computer based and inventive tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles. Lessons are scaffolded or differentiated, where required, so that they are accessed by all children and opportunities are used to stretch the children's learning where required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support the children in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging the recall of key facts and vocabulary. 

The impact of our design and technology scheme is constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessmnet opprtunities.