The Endeavour Design & Technology Vision

'Design is not just what it looks like and how it feels. Design is how it works.'

Steve Jobs

Personal Empowerment

At Endeavour, we design our curriculum in ways that lead to children being able to actively participate in their lives. In DT, by learning the knowledge and concepts that we have chosen to learn in detail, children learn to think critically, which prepares them to be active participants in their own lives. For example, repeatedly returning to the design process of ‘Design, Make, Evaluate’ in increasingly complex ways develops transferable critical thinking that prepares children to make decisions about their lives and to access learning about any area of DT with success in Secondary School. 

Furthermore, DT is a crucial component of our curriculum because it helps us to pass on the best that has been thought and known and to ensure that our children leave Primary School with an expected amount of knowledge about the world. 

Cultural Transmission

At Endeavour, we design our curriculum in a way that ensures that we pass on the best that has been thought and known. In DT, by developing fluency in the knowledge that we have identified should be developed fluently, we use DT to give our children important knowledge that empowers them to thrive. For example, we want our children to develop fluency in the following areas:

• to be able to apply the process of ‘Design, Make, Evaluate’ to any given design criteria.
• to be able to strengthen, reinforce and stiffen more complex structures.
• to be able to identify and use a range of stitches in textiles. 
• to design, make and evaluate a healthy meal to a set criteria, taking into account the principles of a healthy, balanced diet and seasonality.
• to develop a fluent technical understanding of mechanical structures and electrical systems.
• to be able to apply their understanding of computing to program, monitor and control their products.

Beyond the knowledge of the design process and the technical knowledge that we have chosen for our children to develop fluently, we also choose for our children to develop awareness of important designers and important inventions that we believe it is important for our children to have awareness of.

As well as giving children empowering knowledge that allows children to participate in their own lives and to enter society with an expected amount of knowledge, DT also prepares children for citizenship.

Preparation for Citizenship

At Endeavour, we design our curriculum in a way that prepares children to make informed decisions as members of a democratic society. In DT, by developing fluent knowledge of the design process (Plan, Make, Evaluate) and our chosen key concepts of ‘Design’, ‘Innovation’, ‘Creation’ and ‘Progress’ we prepare our children to make informed decisions. For example, we know that children who can evaluate the effectiveness of a final product will be more able to evaluate the potential effectiveness of a proposal that will impact on their lives or the relative strengths and weaknesses of the proposals of two local political candidates. Furthermore, we know that children who have developed fluent knowledge of the concept of ‘progress’ will be better prepared to develop informed opinions about the future development of society (e.g. widespread use of solar panels).

In addition to empowering children to participate in their lives, giving an expected amount of knowledge and preparing children to make informed decisions, the DT curriculum prepares children to thrive in the workplace.

Preparation for Work

At Endeavour, we design our curriculum in a way that prepares children for work. In DT, by developing fluent knowledge of the design process (Plan, Make, Evaluate) and our chosen key concepts ‘Design’, ‘Innovation’, ‘Creation’ and ‘Progress’ we prepare our children to succeed at work. We know that DT develops transferable skills and that knowledge of the design process and our key concepts prepares children with mental models that can be applied to any industry. For example, developing knowledge of how to plan according to a given criteria prepares children to work in any industry and, indeed, to succeed in jobs that do not yet exist.

When designing our curriculum, we ensure that we select knowledge and structure its implementation in ways that lead to personal empowerment, cultural transmission, preparation for citizenship and preparation for work. However, we also acknowledge that there exists the injustice of disadvantage and so we shape our curriculum around the core aim of tackling disadvantage.