Design & Technology
The key to success is failure .... success is made of 99% failure.
James Dyson
Design and technology prepares children to take part in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. Creative thinking encourages children to make positive changes to their quality of life. The subject encourages children to become autonomous and creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team. It enables them to identify needs and opportunities and to respond by developing ideas, and eventually making products and systems. Through the study of design and technology they combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, as well as of functions and industrial practices. This allows them to reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and its impacts. Design and technology helps all children to become discriminating and informed consumers and potential innovators.
The objectives of teaching design and technology are:
- to develop imaginative thinking in children and to enable them to talk about what they like and dislike when designing and making things;
- to enable children to talk about how things work, and to draw and model their ideas;
- to encourage children to select appropriate tools and techniques for making a product, whilst following safe procedures;
- to explore attitudes towards the made world and how we live and work within it;
- to develop an understanding of technological processes and products, their manufacture and their contribution to our society;
- to foster enjoyment, satisfaction and purpose in designing and making things.
- to help children develop an ability to criticise constructively and evaluate their own products and those of others.