Planning

The overview

A team approach to progression and continuity
The recommended emphasis (supported by DATA, DfES and OfSTED) to D&T teaching and management is on a team approach, whereby colleagues or departments, work under the leadership of the head of department or D&T Co-ordinator. Together they decide how they can best provide a balanced and coherent learning experience for students over time.

This might involve such decisions as:

It is also important to plan for appropriate use of ICT and links to any other curriculum areas, egs. science, other aspects of design & technology, graphics skills, industrial practices teaching, literacy, numeracy, key skills, citizenship, education for sustainable development and the KS3 national strategy.

Once these team-based decisions have been made, team members can more confidently get on with their own teaching (in their own style) because they are doing so in the full knowledge that they are working to an agreed framework. They know what their role is and they know what others are doing. This also means that each team member is released of the pressure to cover everything themselves. This should result in a more coherent key stage experience for students and one which is planned logically to promote progression and continuity.

At KS4, in the main, teachers will be teaching single-focus area GCSE (or equivalent) courses. Each specialist takes responsibility for planning these. However, a consistent approach to the teaching of the core aspects of D&T across the department is still desirable and supports students' learning.

Some schools start their KS4 programmes with a common introductory unit for all students, to establish what the study of D&T is like at KS4, what will be expected of students and to emphasise the common aspects of D&T teaching.

For further general guidance on curriculum planning, organisation and management, refer to DATA's KS1&2 or KS3 'Guidance Materials for Design & Technology', 'The D&T Primary Co-ordinator's File' or 'The D&T Secondary Head of Department Handbook'.

back to top

Units of work

When planning a unit of work in food technology, teachers might consider the following check-list:

Any unit of work should be planned to take account of:

Foodforum units of work will be available in this section as templates for teachers to download, adopt or adapt for classroom use.

back to top

Planning the learning

For each unit of work, module or project, teachers will need to ask themselves:
Where does this unit fit in the overall programme or course?
Each unit of work should link to others in the programme, course or key stage, so that each challenges students further and builds on what has gone before. It is worth considering how the key knowledge and skills that make up capability with food in D&T may be developed over time as strands (refer to the relevant National Curriculum (England or Wales) programmes of study for this).

What will students learn ie. learning objectives ?

Be selective. There is no need to cover all aspects of the programme of study in each unit of work. What is more important is that students are developing designing skills, making skills and their knowledge and understanding of materials and processes throughout, and in a logical and sequential way that promotes progression and continuity. So it is good practice to ensure that you plan each unit of work to further this aim. This way the required knowledge, skills and understanding will be taught and comprehensively covered over time, resulting in a coherent experience for students.

How can I organise the learning objectives into a unit of teaching and learning? Use a variety of teaching and learning methods, egs. demonstrations, practical investigations, class discussion, group tasks, product evaluation etc. to introduce or reinforce concepts and skills and to provide students with the experience of learning by doing. You will also want to plan for appropriate use of ICT, industrial practices and links to any other curriculum areas, egs. science, other aspects of design & technology, literacy, numeracy, key skills.

Planning for assessment

How will I assess whether/ to what extent the learning has taken place? Plan for a variety of assessment opportunities which you can use to assess whether or not your teaching was successful, egs. question and answer session, homework exercises, written reports of investigations carried out, research results recorded, a piece of observed practical activity, a designing and making assignment. Focus on different aspects of capability for assessment purposes on each occasion, rather than assessing everything all of the time.

Assessing progress in knowledge and skill acquisition (formative) For each unit of work you will have decided on suitable learning objectives and it is against these that you should assess students. In other words, you will focus in to assess particular aspects of their developing knowledge, skills and understanding, rather than trying to assess the whole of designing and making (capability) in every unit. A simple 3 or 4-point scale for assessment is perfectly adequate for this day-to-day assessment. You should keep a record of students' marks in your mark book, or equivalent, and regularly feed back to students about how they are getting on, setting them realistic targets for which to aim. You can do this verbally, but you may feel it is better to devise a proforma for this purpose so that there is a more permanent record. In terms of expected outcomes it may also help to write out what you would expect of a student who worked well, reasonably, weakly for that unit of work and use this as a gauge of overall performance across three (or more) levels of expectation.

Assessing overall capability (summative) Every now and then during the key stage you will need to set students a design and make assignment for which they take responsibility for the planning and execution. This is their chance to shine - to apply the knowledge, skill and understanding they have been developing and to demonstrate how capably they can design and make a successful product. To assess their D&T capablity you should use the level description from the National Curriculum document (at KS1-3), the Awarding Body coursework mark scheme (at KS4), or your own criteria based on one of these. Monitor students' developing capability with them, so that they can recognise their strengths and weaknesses and take a view of the progress they are making. This should be an on-going dialogue.

Standardisation of assessment across all those involved in teaching D&T should be carried out at KS1-3. Doing so helps in the development of consistency in assessment practice and provides quality assurance for the subject. Writing end of unit expectations for each unit of work when it is planned, agreeing these and assessing against them is one way of developing a standard approach across a number of teachers.

back to top

Focus on KS3

Tips for selecting food topics for units of work

Planning your own units of work