Design Technology

In DT at Seaton we strive to inspire our children to become the engineers, designers, architects and chefs of the future. We believe that a high-quality design and technology education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of the nation. We know that Design and technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. We encourage our pupil’s to use their imagination and creativity to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts. We want our children to acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. We encourage our pupils to learn how to take risks to become resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, our children develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world.  

DT Curriculum Implementation

All DT units of work at Seaton should follow a 4 part design process: Investigate, Design, Make and Evaluate.  

Each of these 4 parts should be documented in the child’s DT book.  

In DT at Seaton, children should design, make and evaluate products that solve real and relevant problems. Every  DT unit should include an element of real life problem solving. The end product produced by the children should be functional, able to be tested and evaluated.  

At the investigation and exploration stage, children explore real life artefacts in order to ascertain what makes them work and what makes them good designs. Children should derive success criteria through this exploration stage.  

At the design stage children should be given a brief and a problem to solve so that they are clear on who the product is for and what the purpose of the product is. Each unit should involve explicit skills building at the design stage.  

At the making stage children should select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform their practical tasks. There should also be an opportunity for mini evaluations or written responses where possible. 

At the evaluation stage, children should evaluate their final product against their design criteria. 

We use ‘Projects on a Page’ by the DT Association to support the implementation of the National Curriculum for D&T in an imaginative way based on universal principles of effective teaching and learning in DT.