Design and Technology is a popular, yet essential subject for all our pupils here at Ganton School. Life for a special needs child is all about challenges and through innovative, enterprising experiences, students here learn to take on those challenges, take risks, become resourceful – and with careful guidance, build ‘Resilience’ to tackle problems they face, not ‘Reliance’ on the support systems around them.
Knowledge and understanding is experienced and gained within exciting and purpose built projects, which in turn helps to develop cross-curricular skills, used across a full range of essential subjects, such as numeracy, literacy and communication- showing how design technology is an integral part of the school day. Pupils with special educational needs make better progress in D&T than in most other subjects. This is because designing and making usable products gives pupils a real sense of achievement. They benefit from experiencing their own progress and taking responsibility for their own learning. They enjoy the practical application of their ideas. Plus, their personal engagement and with the task, comes an improved attention span, patience, persistence and commitment.
The ‘Units of Work’ we have created, run over a 2 or 3 year cycle and ensures continuous, consistent whole school approach. Each key-stage ‘End Of Terms Goals’ are used in the themes, ensuring that the skills the students are learning, naturally flow right throughout the year groups. The teacher is then free to teach the theme full of fundamental problem solving activities, woven in such a rich and structured way, as to give every opportunity of realising a child’s maximum potential, whilst accommodating challenge to our pupils of all abilities.
It is the aim of the D and T curriculum that when students leave us, they have thoroughly explored, imagined and made in a range of projects that leave them with ‘skills for life’. It’s these life-skills that allow every student the opportunity to go on to explore, prepare and then plan for their own independent adulthood.
D&T curriculum for the Sensory Explorer
In D and T sensory explorers will have multiple opportunities to engage a range of activities, and learn learning through play in order to experience how different object can lead to cause and effect. Each student will learn via exploring different materials and processes rather than producing an end outcome, For example, knowing that a pen or paint brush can be used for Mark making, using cutlery with some level of independence when eating, knowing that a chair is designed for them to sit on in order to rest, knowing that there are a range of foods can be eaten or that some materials feel different to others. Within the sensory exploration section each student will engage with different mediums and explore the current theme through this. This enables each sensory explorer to navigate the theme through a medium in D and T that suits them, processing like and dislikes and making informed choices.
D&T curriculum for those who are preparing for independence.
Pupils who are preparing for independence will begin to have more exposure to formal elements of a D ant T curriculum. At this stage pupils will be encouraged to build on previous knowledge and use some increased levels of accuracy and skill to make an end product. For pupils in this phase learning opportunities should be focused around better preparing students to be independent when using a number of different tools/ resources. Pupils who are preparing for independence will be encouraged to make choices and continually assess risk when it comes to using resources. There will be an emphasis on the process that can be linked to preparation to adulthood for example, know what foods may be healthier to eat or understating that some tools are sharp and therefore could be dangerous
D&T curriculum for those who are able to plan for independence
Pupils who are planning for independence will focus on creating products that follow some sort of design brief. At this stage lessons may look more formal in that pupils will be encouraged to design, make and evaluate their work. Pupils will draw on knowledge to navigate a number of different mediums in construction, cooking and textiles. Pupils will be encouraged to seek solutions to problems with increased independence with a view to building resilience. Pupils will experience tools knowing that they are to be used for a purpose. There will be a focus on students understanding that their choices can impact design and will try to evaluate their own and others work with this in mind.
