At Brookfield, the teaching of Design and Technology aims to assist children in developing skills of designing, making and evaluating through the creation of a wide range of objects and products.
Children are encouraged to create items for a purpose and to become proficient in using a range of techniques, materials and tools for a variety of purposes. The inspiration for the children’s work often originates from other topics in class and strong links are made with other subjects such as art, science, computing and maths to support their work.
Children make a variety of products including model buildings, mechanical toys, photo frames, musical instruments, moving pictures and healthy snacks. As each of the areas of the DT curriculum are taught, the key skills and theories behind them are explored and tested.
Each year group develops their skills in cooking and nutrition, which encourages the children to recognise how to have a balanced diet and to provide them with basic cooking skills for later life.
Cooking and Nutrition in the National Curriculum
Since September 2014, the national curriculum has included a specific requirement for schools to teach Cooking and Nutrition at Key Stages 1 and 2. It focuses on three key areas of learning:
- Healthy eating and nutrition.
- Where food comes from.
- Practical cooking.
Key stage 1 Pupils should be taught to:
- Use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes.
- Understand where food comes from.
Key stage 2 Pupils should be taught to:
- Understand and apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet.
- Prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques.
- Understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.
In school, pupils will be learning:
- About healthy eating through understanding the Eat Well Guide and learning that different foods provide nutrients and how these affect the body.
- About a range of foods and how they are grown, transported and sold.
- Key food preparation and cooking skills and how to cook a range of healthy, savoury dishes.
- About a range of ingredients from around the world and how to identify and name them.
At Brookfield, children in Years 1 to 6 will be taught one cooking and nutrition topic each year as part of the D&T curriculum. Within that unit they will be given three separate opportunities to make/cook healthy recipes.