Our vision

Our school vision underpins our Design and Technology curriculum, enabling children to flourish into enthusiastic and resilient learners who respect and support each other through their creative learning journey. 

Our Pilgrim learning journey for Design and Technology is shown here.

Intent

At Pilgrim, our D&T curriculum is designed to prepare children for the developing world and provide them with a real-life context for their learning. We believe  D&T helps develop creative, technical and practical skills and knowledge in design and allows children to see the world from a different standpoint. We aim to provide a learning environment where children feel secure to become innovators and creative risk-taking and problem solving is encouraged, both as individuals and part of a team. 

Through the study of design and technology, we want our children to be inspired to become engineers, designers, chefs and architects. Therefore we enable them to combine practical skills in design, structures, mechanisms, textiles and food products with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users. Our children are actively encouraged to think about important issues such as sustainability and enterprise throughout their D&T learning journey.

Implementation

Lessons at Pilgrim are planned carefully in line with the National Curriculum and our self-developed ‘Pilgrim Progress’ assessment procedures provide support for staff and pupils to monitor their progress against the gaining of key skills and knowledge. This important spine allows us to manage our split classes and plan a clear cycle of topics and learning that begins with an individual child's starting point- from safely using and exploring a variety of materials, tools and techniques in EYFS to a complex understanding of the DT process in KS1 and KS2.The foundation stones to a successful education lie in the acquisition of basic skills and knowledge.

All teaching of DT follows the design, make and evaluate cycle and each design process is rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning. Teachers create a positive attitude to learning and reinforce the expectation that all pupils are capable of high standards in their designs and products Through the teaching of DT our pupils acquire a broad range of technical knowledge and vocabulary whilst also drawing on disciplines such as Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Computing and Art.

Our pupils use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing and fit-for-purpose products. Planning should be through appropriate formats eg annotated sketches, patterns/templates, communicating ideas verbally and prototypes/’mock-ups’. While making, children will be given a wide range of tools, materials and components including textiles, construction equipment and ingredients to choose freely from. They build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to make high-quality prototypes and products for a range of users. At the end of the design process, they will evaluate own products against a design criteria. When additional needs are identified, we support all children to access learning and challenge individuals to deepen their understanding.

Pilgrim Progress 

Our Taskmaster Competition Winners!

Well done to everyone for their fantastic efforts in the egg challenge.  You were brilliant!

The Taskmaster found it so hard to choose the winner that he decided to give lots of prizes!  Here he is making his selection!

What have we been learning in Design Technology?

What have we been reading in Design Technology?

DT experiences at Pilgrim

From building new bug hotels to making and sharing food within our classrooms and with our community, We love using practical skills to embed our learning. We can select the correct materials to build Ancient Egyptian style shadufs, or fluffy woolly mammouth creatures to inspire our writing! We are able to talk about what contributes to a healthy diet and experience how different foods taste and how to combine flavours. We have even been looking at how to make a successful marble run using cardboard and plastic tubing to alter the speed at which our marble can travel. We love exploring the trial and error elements of design and make projects. 

AA Pilgrim DT

 Primary engineer competition 2024 

For a whole school DT project we entered into a nationwide Primary school competition. run by Primary Engineer, this annual event consists of children entering a design of an invention they would make if they were an engineer. We have been bowled over by the entries we have had back and we just had to award some children a prize! Our lucky winners designs have been shown below. More to come after our open afternoon on Friday 22nd March 2024 to showcase all the entries! 

All of our entries have been sent off to "Primary Engineer" and we hope to hear back soon about any potential winners from our school! Good Luck Pilgrim!

 

Competition Result! 

We have been humbled and immensely proud of all the hard work our children have shown with their entries to this years Primary Engineers competition. 

We were amazed when this week we found out that The Pilgrim school had been shortlisted with not one...not two but three WINNERS!! All their hard work paid off and out of 10's of thousands of entries that have been judges by engineers this year we want to say a huge congratulations to Tilly, Orla and Alex! You have made us all incredibly proud and we wish you all the best for your upcoming award ceremony!

DT Primary Engineers Competiton