The following guidance may be helpful for teachers who want to review or create their own scheme of work.
Defining a key stage plan
A key stage plan:
- takes account of the circumstances of the school and its aims and purposes;
- is a whole school plan agreed by all staff;
- sets out an agreed time allocation for each subject per year, for each year group or mixed age class;
- is based on the requirements for each subject for the appropriate key stage;
- makes clear school priorities, eg moral, social and cultural, and PSHE.
Constructing a scheme of work for design and technology within the framework of the key stage plan
When teachers develop or review a scheme of work for design and technology, it is helpful to think about:
- the aims and purposes of the design and technology curriculum at key stages 1 and 2, and its contribution to the whole primary curriculum;
- design and technology activities that will motivate and excite both children and teachers;
- the designing and making skills and knowledge and understanding to be taught, and the balance between the key aspects drawn from the programme of study;
- the techniques that need to be taught to support this;
- how these ideas might best be sequenced;
- ways in which children make progress in learning design and technology;
- how to check children's progress;
- the practicalities of organising the teaching of design and technology, and of classroom management;
- links with other areas of the curriculum.
The following questions may help teachers to focus on what needs to be done.
Skills, techniques and key ideas
- What are the skills, knowledge and understanding underlying the statements within the programme of study?
- In terms of the level descriptions, what is the demand of these skills, techniques and ideas?
- How can these skills and knowledge and understanding be divided up into manageable units, each with a focus, so that they are appropriate for the overall aims and purposes of the curriculum at the key stage?
- Is there a balance between the aspects of the programmes of study across the units planned for each key stage, eg design process, making process, scientific and technological aspects, visual/aesthetic/sensory aspects, communication/modelling/clarification of ideas, and moral/social/cultural/economic/ethical aspects?
What activities will provide opportunities for children to learn the key ideas in each of the units?
Progression
- What is known about what children have already achieved when they enter the key stage, and how does this affect the pitch of the early units?
- Which design and technological concepts depend on secure understanding of other areas?
- How can units and ideas within units be sequenced so that earlier work lays the foundations for later work?
- Are there opportunities for revisiting and reinforcing the skills and knowledge and understanding children need to assimilate and understand and which some will find difficult?
- When the skills and knowledge and understanding are revisited or reinforced, is it in a different context or using different activities?
- How are children who have some competence and expertise beyond levels expected in particular years, challenged?
Checking progress and assessment
- What are the learning objectives and learning outcomes for each unit?
- Do the activities suggested relate clearly to the specified learning objectives and learning outcomes?
- How can children's progress within each unit be checked?
- Do the learning objectives and learning outcomes match the expectations of achievement by the end of each year?
Practical considerations
- At what time of year is it most appropriate to teach each unit, eg does it involve going outside? When are certain foods in season? Will a school event or celebration provide a good context?
- What resources are needed for this unit? Do these place constraints on when the unit might be taught?
- How long will it take to teach this unit?
- Is it best to teach this work frequently for short periods of time, eg half an hour, or will some of the activities require fewer longer sessions, perhaps one or two hours?
Links with other curriculum areas
- Where are there clear links to other parts of the curriculum? Is it appropriate for combined activities to be planned?
- What opportunities are there for developing children's literacy, speaking and listening, mathematics, IT, science and art capabilities?
- What design and technology is taught in other blocks of work where design and technology is not the main focus?
- How will the work be planned to help children to transfer their knowledge, skills and understanding?
Aims and purposes of design and technology at key stages 1 and 2
- Does the proposed scheme of work promote teaching that will help children to develop the skills and qualities set out in 'Teaching design and technology at key stages 1 and 2'?
Progression in learning design and technology
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