
Design Technology
Welcome to the DT page.
Mrs Orr leads DT throughout school.
“I love to design and create – I studied Dress Design and Art (and English) for ‘A’ level and have continued to develop my passion in these areas ever since. I design and make clothes and soft furnishings for both myself and others and I am constantly upcycling items of furniture and clothes. I am inspired by celebrity chefs on the TV to bake and try out new recipes. I want children in Sandylands to feel inspired and curious about how structures, mechanisms, objects, fashion and food have been designed and created to shape our world and for them to appreciate and understand the impact of DT in their everyday lives. “
Mrs Orr



Our Design technology curriculum …
We aim to teach a sequence of well planned, engaging lessons of DT each term and will include the units Mechanisms, Structures as well as Textiles and Food/Nutrition.
Articulate and explore ideas through labelled diagrams, prototypes, computer aided design; be encouraged to take risks, to evaluate , test and improve designs.
Design and create high quality structures, mechanisms and products that are imaginative, appealing, stable, functional and fit for purpose.
To deepen knowledge and skills and understanding of new techniques and accuracy in measuring and joining.
Appreciate and understand how DT has helped shape the world around us both past and present.
Design Technology Learning Pathway

Knowledge
Sequenced opportunity to revisit key Design technology knowledge…
Substantive – facts about engineers and themes
Themes – for example … structures, mechanisms, CAD, Food and nutrition..
Procedural – development of techniques e.g istructures, mechanisms etc…
Procedural – for example – design, evaluate
Disciplinary – How the children want to develop their ideas and thoughts into a finished working piece.
For example – All children will work towards a finished piece which follows the Sandylands ‘looks good, works well’ way.

Timetabling
Design technology is taught for half an hour to one hour per week on a rolling programme. Sometimes DT sessions are blocked and taught over a 6 week period. The sessions follows the principles of researching existing produces,design,made and evaluate over a number of weeks.

Assessment
Design Technology is assessed by the class teacher and subject leader following our Sandylands model:
Checkpoint 1 – What do the children already know? Led by the class teacher at the start of each DT topic/lesson
Checkpoint 2 – Teacher assessment at the end of the lesson- what have the children learnt, followed up in subsequent lessons by recapping the facts and knowledge learnt so far.
Checkpoint 3 – Teacher assessed – at the end of the unit in the form of quizzes, class discussions. This allows the class teacher to understand which children need further understanding and if there any misconceptions.
Checkpoint 4 – Teacher assessed – after 4 weeks – quizzes to check what the children know and can remember.
Checkpoint 5 – Subject leader will interview groups of children to analyse what they have learnt, how they have mastered key concepts and can apply their knowledge and understanding. The subject leader will also conduct a pupil book study and look at understanding of procedural knowledge such as the design and evaluation stages.

CPD for teachers
Mrs Orr is relatively new to the DT lead post and has undertaken some subject lead training. Staff has access to continued professional development on DT virtually via the National college. Staff work closely with Lancaster university and Lancaster and Morecambe college to ensure children are given opportunities to understand the world of ‘real-life’ DT through educational visits and workshops.
Essential Entitlement
Design Technology – Lightboxes
Year 4 have been busy designing , making and evaluating their own lightbox designs recently during Design Technology. They used their knowledge from their Science sessions on Electricity to construct a simple circuit to light them...
Help Baby Bear Sit Down!
In DT, Year 1 are looking at the best way to make a chair for baby bear. We have looked at a range of chairs and this week, we were experimenting with using different materials for joining.
Run. run as fast as you can…
Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man! Nursery had a great time making gingerbread men last week. They followed the instructions and then ate them all up - they were very tasty!
Year 2 Cooking club
Year 2 had great fun in their cooking club this week. We followed the instructions for making Pinwheel Pizzas. Follow the recipe if you want to have a go at home too!
Year 1 DT – sock puppets
We have had fun designing, creating and evaluating our sock puppets over the past few weeks. He used our designs to create a prototype and our final product. We attached the features using glue. We talked about what we liked about our sock puppet and what we would...
DT fun in Year 1
This afternoon Year 1 have been making a prototype of their sock puppets. They used the design they drew last week and attached paper to show the features. We are looking forward to making out final sock puppets next week.
Planting Plants
As part of Year 2's Science, DT and PSHE work, we have been planting this week. We have planted potatoes as part of food technology and eating healthy. We are going to grow these and design a dish to eat. Yummy! We have also planted runner beans as one of our Science...
Sandylands Bake off 2020
Any budding bakers out there? Send us your photos and menu ideas.
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Last Updated on April 24, 2023