Design & Technology
“Every great design begins with an even greater story”
Lorinda Marr
Coordinator: Miss Pegler
At Stanford Junior School, challenging pupils with real life design and technology tasks will allow them to think critically and work creatively. Building on their innate natural instincts to experiment and create, these tasks will help facilitate the interleaving of related learning and allow them to develop skills, including oracy, literacy, numeracy, language, thinking skills and social skills.
Providing pupils with a real-life context allows them to analyse why the product is needed and identify the intended market. Pupils will be given opportunities to evaluate existing products in order to understand how they work and, through making and experimenting, adapt and improve them to create new solutions to a problem, with the needs of the consumer in mind. Adapting products, and designing new products, requires a level of problem-solving in order to fulfil the design brief. This process enables pupils to have a clear understanding of the design process.
Pupils start each project with the design brief and finish with an evaluation and possible modification of their own projects. Pupils will be taken through the design and make process, enabling them to experience how designers work. As Brighton & Hove is a design-rich community, our intent is that pupils develop an awareness of future career opportunities. Our vision includes enriching pupils’ learning experiences through STEM projects, trips, visits and partnership work with local universities, designers and practitioners.
All pupils will experience using a variety of materials and techniques and will be shown how to use relevant tools and equipment correctly and safely during focussed teaching sessions to progress, consolidate and build upon their learning. Food technology and health and safety forms part of our curriculum provision.
Click this link to access Stanford Junior School's design & technology curriculum.
Year 3
Recycled bird feeders
Children designed and made a bird feeder from recyclable materials to hang in the school garden. The design needed to be durable and attractive.
Sail boats
The pharaoh needed a sail boat to transport goods down the Nile. Year 3 experimented with different hull shapes to discover which was best for carrying cargo. Some were more successful than others!
Rainforest Smoothies
The pupils designed, made and evaluated a healthy smoothie drink for the Rainforest Café. The ingredients of their drinks were fruits which originate from the tropical rainforests. They even came up with branding and an advertising campaign to support this.
Year 4
Frames and structures
Year 4 were given the choice of designing a kite that a Roman child could play with or designing a kite that a Roman soldier could use in battle to scare enemies. They needed to build a reinforced frame structure using hacksaws and glue guns.
2D shape to 3D product- mittens
The children were challenged to design a mitten for Ernest Shackleton and his crew that could withstand Antarctic conditions. They used running, back, blanket and whip stitches in order to achieve their finished products.
Year 5
Paper mechanisms
Year 5 designed pop-up books to celebrate some of the Greek myths they have read and written. As well as pop-up elements, they included moving parts in the form of sliding levers and lift-up tabs.
Structures
In the Spring term, the pupils explored how to strengthen and stiffen structures. They applied their skills in teamwork, problem-solving and perseverance to create bridge structures.
Year 6
Make do and mend
Drawing inspiration from ‘sock monkeys’ and the idea of turning old into new, Year 6 repurposed old clothing into stuffed toys. They built upon their previous experiences of sewing and chose different stitches for effect and strength.
Electronic games
Using their scientific knowledge of circuits, the pupils designed and made their own electronic games. As well as this, they needed to include clear instructions with rules of play.