LMS - Design Technology

Design and Technology

Design and Technology co-ordinator - Miss S Curry

Aims | Year 5 | Year 6 | Year 7 | Year 8

At Lindisfarne Middle School we believe that Design and Technology should encourage pupils to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team. They should be taught to look for opportunities and to respond to them by developing a range of ideas and making a range of products. They should also reflect on and evaluate present and past design technology, its uses and its effectiveness. They should be encouraged to become innovators.

Aims of Design & Technology

to develop pupils’ designing and making skills,
to teach pupils the knowledge and understanding, within each child’s ability, that will be required to complete the making of their product,
to teach pupils the safe and effective use of a range of tools, materials and components,
to develop pupils’ understanding of the ways in which people have designed products in the past and present to meet their needs,
to develop pupils’ creativity and innovation through designing and making,
to develop pupils’ understanding of technological processes, their management and their contribution to society.

We have three specialised Design and Technology Areas. Our children receive two hours of Design and Technology each week and throughout the year they all have an opportunity to work in our workshop, textiles room and food room. Our workshop is divided into a wet area and a workshop area equipped with a wide range of hand and electric tools. The textiles room contains six electric sewing machines and an ICT area. Food is an important part of our curriculum and children work in our well equipped food room.

Design and Technology Curriculum

Year 5

Bookmarks – an introduction to the design process.
Landyachts – working in the workshop to design a wind powered vehicle and learning the use the hand tools safely.
Woolly Memories – working in the textiles room to create and weave a tapestry from a range of yarns and materials to commemorate an important event or memory.
Exciting Enterprise – developing entrepreneurial skills and working as a team to complete a mini enterprise project to raise money for the Design and Technology Piggy Bank.
Monkey Muffins – working in the food room designing, adapting recipes and making a range of healthy muffins and snacks.
Creative Construction – looking at structures and the forces that work against. The children are challenged to use their knowledge to build the tallest tower out of A4 paper and design and make a creative structure using recycled materials.

Year 6

Mechanisms – investigating how mechanisms work and using this knowledge to design and make moving monsters.
Come for tea – design and make a healthy meal of pizza and a fruit dessert.
Graphics – developing graphics skills using a range of media including CAD.
Puppets – designing and making a hand puppet.
Wacky Races – using electronics to power a wacky race car.
Enterprise – Making products to sell at the Enterprise Fair.

Year 7

Birdboxes – designing a birdbox to protect fledglings and learning to use the electric tools in the workshop.
Cushions – using a range to techniques to design and cushion and develop sewing machine skills to make a cushion.
Healthy Board Games – designing a board game using electrical circuits and components to educate Year 5 pupils about healthy eating.
Enterprise – working with food, making textile products and building games for the Enterprise Fair.

Year 8

Playing with Plastics – using creative design to produce an original product our of acrylic plastic.
Hats – designing and making a fleece hat.
Pasta Perfezioni – Designing and making a tomato based pasta sauce.
Designing for the future – developing design skills and solving problems using technologies of the future and smart materials.
Enterprise Week – work as team to plan a party and present a bid to a panel of judges.