Prendergast Primary School

Design & Technology

 

 

At Prendergast our Design and Technology curriculum aims to develop creative, practical and reflective learners who can design and make products that solve real and relevant problems. We want pupils to become confident innovators who are willing to take risks, test ideas and learn from mistakes.

The curriculum is sequenced across the year groups, ensuring pupils progressively build skills in designing, making, evaluating and technical knowledge across textiles, structures, mechanisms, food and electrical systems. Learning is rooted in real-life contexts and linked where appropriate to other curriculum areas, helping pupils understand the purpose and impact of design and technology in everyday life.

By the time pupils leave our school, they will have developed the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to think creatively, work independently and apply their learning to new challenges.

Design and Technology is taught through a series of well-planned, practical units across each year group, following a clear design process: investigating existing products, designing, making, evaluating and applying technical knowledge.

In EYFS, Design and Technology is embedded within Expressive Arts and Design, Physical Development and Understanding the World. Children explore materials, tools and construction through play-based experiences that develop fine motor skills, creativity and problem-solving.

In Key Stage 1, pupils develop basic skills through projects involving textiles, structures, mechanisms and food preparation. They learn to use tools safely, join materials and evaluate their work.

In Key Stage 2, pupils build on these foundations by working with increasing accuracy and independence. They explore more complex structures, mechanisms, textiles and electrical systems, applying their knowledge to purposeful designs.

Across all year groups, learning is hands-on and inclusive, with explicit teaching of vocabulary, opportunities for collaboration and regular evaluation. Cross-curricular links and real-world contexts support pupils in understanding how design and technology connects to everyday life.

Food Education

We highly value food education at PPS and are fortunate to work with some passionate and talent parent volunteers who share our vision of ensuring children leave us knowing how to prepare a healthy meal. We dedicate half a term to each year group to focus on food learning, linking experiences to their topic questions. These sessions allow children to develop general kitchen skills as well as increase their awareness of a range of tastes and textures of food and discover more about the history and culture of the foods we eat.

TastEd

TastEd is a programme that is delivered at Prendergast, aiming to help children learn to love eating fruit and veg through exploring it with their senses.

In every TastEd lesson at Prendergast around half of the children try a new vegetable and often like it! In some classes, a few children totally change their minds about certain vegetables, from saying they hate it, to actually liking it. And at the end of each lesson, children always ask for leftovers and more vegetables to try.

Children do enjoy vegetables and can learn to like more. Below are some tips for how to continue and build on this learning at home. These are based on research about how to improve children’s eating habits, TastEd’s approach and 5 years of teaching food education.

  • Our tastes continue to change throughout our lives. Our taste preferences are not fixed. We can learn to like different foods, often through repeated exposure to new ingredients and dishes. Research shows that it takes up to 10 tastes of a food to learn to like it. Children’s food preferences are not permanent, so keep trying.

  • KEEP offering new foods to your children! Research shows that parents often stop offering children new foods after 3 tries, so don’t give up too early.

  • Trusted adults and peers are powerful influences on children’s food choices so make sure you gently demonstrate that you like vegetables and trying new foods to show your children that it’s normal.

  • Make trying new foods a family affair. Find a fruit or vegetable none of you have tried and try it together and discuss what you think of it.

  • Children LOVE to talk about foods they like and dislike but often focus on why they don’t like a certain food. It may be that they only like raw carrots rather than cooked.

  • Use the senses to explore and discuss foods to understand what it is your child likes or dislikes - ask them why?

  • Textures of foods have a huge influence on whether children like or dislike a food. For example, your child may really like crunchy or soft foods, or they may like cooked, not raw tomatoes (very common). Once you know this, you could possibly adapt meal times to accommodate their preferences, whilst still offering things they might not be so keen on.

  • At TastEd one of the golden rules is “You don’t have to try” which can seem a little counterintuitive. When encouraged to eat something, children often refuse, but when you say you don’t have to try it, sometimes, children’s innate curiosity will take over. In TastEd we talk about using all our senses to explore new foods. So, smelling, listening, touching and even licking new foods can be a great way to take baby steps in trying new foods.

  • Always celebrate and reward children for being brave in trying new foods. Talk about how even adults can feel a little worried about trying new foods and that is totally normal for everyone. (Think about being on holiday and how you feel when offered unfamiliar foods).

  • Try exploring new foods away from meal times. Snack times are often more gentle times to try something. Offer something new with a favourite food.

  • Get children involved in shopping, preparing and cooking food. Simply selecting, handling, chopping and a cheeky taste when cooking helps to familiarise them with a new food. Many times when cooking with children at school, children would change their mind about a food they thought they hated.

  • Most of all… don’t give up. Learning to enjoy different foods is a lifelong journey.

 

Useful resources

TastEd - videos and resources with activities for children to explore fruit and veg using their senses.

First Bite by Bee Wilson - very interesting book that explores why we eat, and how we can change

Tiny Tastes - a scheme for fussy eaters based on trying 1cm pieces of foods.

Babyled weaning by Gill Rapley - a great book that encourages babies and toddlers to explore the whole foods (not purees)

 

Veg based cookbooks for children