'In Jerusalem he made engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.' Chronicles 26:15

At The Revel, the intention of the Design and Technology (DT) curriculum is to inspire children and promote practical skills alongside the subject knowledge of maths, science, engineering and art. During DT lessons, children learn how to become resilient, resourceful individuals whom have innovative ideology, which is potentially capable of becoming enterprising further on into their adult lives. Children should be prepared with skills, which enable them to envision a design and critically evaluate it during the making, assessing how they will create their product and how to make it better. High quality design and technology education is essential to the contribution of a creative, resilient and critical future work force and requires the many skills learnt in the subjects taught throughout the majority of the curriculum.

At The Revel, we believe that high-quality DT lessons will inspire children to design and make products for a specific user and purpose. Children learn problem solving skills through thinking, organising and making. Children are taught how to think through problems creatively, organise themselves and to use knowledge and skills to bring about change and to shape the environment. Through our design and technology teaching children become both critical and informed users of products and become innovators. Children will be introduced to a range of skills and develop their knowledge of the famous people that have shaped and continue to shape design. The skills they acquire are applied to their cross-curricular topics, allowing children to use their DT skills to reflect on and explore topics in greater depth.

It is paramount that design work be purposeful through firsthand experience whilst acknowledging other designers, as a starting point. Children should be clear what the intended outcomes are and have a means to measure their own work against this. In DT, children are expected to be reflective and evaluate their work, thinking about how they can make changes and keep improving. This should be meaningful and continuous throughout the process, with evidence of age-related verbal and written refection. Children are encouraged to take risks and experiment and then reflect on why some ideas and techniques are successful or not for a particular project. Our aim is to ensure that children feel confident approaching design technology, feel a strong sense of achievement, value the impact of design and are able to reach their full potential.

Wherever possible children will be given opportunities to visit local museums, shops and restaurants and meet with designers, engineers, chefs and architects. We believe design and technology provides a natural opportunity for children to practice and improve basic skills such as spoken language, English and mathematics. At The Revel, we provide learning opportunities for developing key competencies such as problem-solving, teamwork, negotiation, consumer awareness and organisation. Through evaluating the process and their final products children will be encouraged to apply knowledge and skills from art and design, science, computing and English.

Throughout the year, we hold fantastic, immersive DT ‘Crafternoon’ weeks where there is a focus on a skill set across a week, producing fantastic process work and functional, final pieces. This in order to inspire and motivate a love of design technology and to immerse the pupils in a world of innovation. The children begin the process be examining products and functions, designing their own, and making their
final piece, ending in evaluating their product.