Subject Leader Profile

Mrs Barnes is an enthusiastic advocate of the importance of design and technology teaching in primary school. She has been designing and creating from a young age, and has undertaken a great deal of CPD in this area, including working in collaboration with qualified engineers, to continue to improve and develop her skills so that her pupils are provided with the best possible DT experience.

Wickhambreaux teaches DT through discrete sessions, interleaved sessions, and themed weeks devoted to the subject, which Mrs Barnes organises to follow and engaging theme which can be accessed by all year groups. 

Under her leadership, DT at Wickhambreaux has flourished. Pupils are provided many opportunities to explore their creative vision, evaluate their ideas and develop them, and exercise their skills with logical reasoning and flexible thinking in analysing and improving their creations.

She and Mrs Chipperfield co-founded STEM club as an extracurricular outlet for pupils to further extend their knowledge, understanding and practical experiences in this subject, which are fundamentally important for children to function as effective citizens in future society.

Vision Statement

Design and Technology is a practical subject which provides opportunity for creativity and imagination for all children. Pupils evaluate existing products and use these, alongside a design brief, to design, make and evaluate their own innovative new products. Their products must solve problems, within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.

Existing products are studied and their suitability for purpose is evaluated. Results of these are used to inform subsequent product design alongside a design brief. All Children are taught to select and use appropriate tools safely and effectively to make a product, before evaluating their own product against the design brief.  

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By providing the children with the necessary skills in DT, we are creating adults who are proficient in problem solving, collaboration and innovation.