Design & Technology
A love for learning is at the heart of the Shade Primary School.
We are respectful, we are responsible, we are resilient,
we are reflective and we are ready to learn.
At The Shade Primary School, we believe that a stimulating, progressive and creative Design and Technology curriculum will give our children the best opportunity to become skillful, resourceful and innovative citizens.
Curriculum Statement
At the Shade Primary School, we teach our children about the rich farmlands that surround us and the food that is produced within our local community and region. We make use of links with local businesses such as G’s farming and Turners transport. We believe it is important that our children are involved in the creation of our school menu’s and that they understand where our food comes from and why it’s chosen carefully for our diet.
We draw on the skills and knowledge of our parents and our community and teach our children about jobs and careers that involve design and technology. We want our children to leave their primary years with a curiosity for understanding how things work and the belief that they can contribute to the wider world and future creations.
In Design and Technology, we aim to provide our children with opportunities to tackle problems of a practical nature. Skills are developed using tools and by making artefacts and food products with an emphasis on healthy living. Working with a variety of materials aims to help children learn important life skills. Children learn independently and in groups, learning to co-operate, plan, design, make and evaluate their work. They learn to make their own decisions with help and encouragement.
We implemented the CUSP curriculum in 2020. The curriculum, which is unapologetically ambitious, is knowledge based and offers explicit vocabulary instruction. The teaching sequences are cumulative and coherent and offer embedded routines to minimalise cognitive overload. The curriculum was chosen as it was underpinned by cognitive and neuro science research A guiding principle of CUSP Design & Technology is that each study draws upon prior learning.
CUSP Design & Technology has sequenced the national curriculum into blocks with each block covering a particular set of disciplines, including food and nutrition, mechanisms, structures, systems, electrical systems, understanding materials and textiles. Vertical progression in each discipline has been deliberately woven into the fabric of the curriculum so that pupils revisit key disciplines throughout their Primary journey at increasing degrees of challenge and complexity.
CUSP Design & Technology is designed to develop pupils’ oracy and vocabulary skills to enable them to use the language associated with design and technology meaningfully when talking about their work and the work of others.