CURRICULUM
In this way, as can be seen in the table, DT projects in Year 3 will involve some new skills learning in the Design, Analyse and Refine phases whereas children will simply be revisiting and practising other parts of the process and having teacher-provided resources in lieu of yet other parts of the process (Investigate and Criteria in this instance). In doing this, the time allotted to the teaching of DT can be more focused and deliberate and the iterative design process can be taught over time so that by Year 6 children are following the whole process and are beginning to complete some parts of it with a degree of independence. In reducing the amount of new content that is taught regarding the design process, there will still be ample time to teach the more
specific skills, for example how to cut wood at an angle, how to join two pieces of fabric or how to make a bread dough.
Whose responsibility is this? As what I have outlined is a whole school approach, it is clear that the responsibility to be strategic about the teaching of the iterative design process over time lies with whoever is in charge of leading Design Technology. However, there are implications for teachers working in schools where no such whole-school strategy exists. For example, if you teach three DT units during a year, you could look
at splitting up the phases of the process over those three units. If you work closely with the other year group(s) in your phase then perhaps you can coordinate the coverage between you. Even if you don’t have the opportunity as a teacher to do this, it is still important to remember that you don’t have to burden yourself and the children with completion of the whole iterative design process in one DT project. Break it down, decide which parts of it are relevant, necessary and appropriate – use some assessment information here if you have it or can get it – and deliver a unit that allows children to experience at least part of the iterative design process.
“...the time allotted to the teaching of DT can be more focused and deliberate and the iterative design process can be taught over time so that by Year 6 children are following the whole process”
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