Design and technology has a unique contribution to make to support the integration of new arrivals into schools. The subject allows children to combine thought and practical skills and use spoken language to:

• draw on previous experiences where appropriate when generating design ideas, and to understand the value of those experiences to others
• gain an understanding of the new world around them when making products
• begin to evaluate their new world.

It is crucial to remember that the experiences that the children bring with them will vary considerably. Some will have enjoyed rich opportunities on which they can draw when designing and making, whilst others will have had few experiences, including those they wish to forget. Some families will have brought with them a wealth of materials that they can share to support design and technology activities. Others will have none.

Because of the nature of design and technology, children will be involved with much practical activity, exploration, investigation and play. This encourages them to interact, to discuss and to use new words in a non-threatening environment.

While children are at an early stage in their design and technology curriculum experiences, it is crucial that appropriate building blocks are put in place from which they can develop their skills, knowledge and understanding when thinking up ideas, planning and making products and evaluating them.

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Planning for inclusion

The national curriculum is the starting point for planning a school curriculum that meets the specific needs of newly arrived pupils. The national curriculum inclusion statement outlines how teachers can modify, as necessary, the national curriculum programmes of study to provide all pupils with relevant and appropriately challenging work at each key stage. It sets out three principles that are essential to developing a more inclusive curriculum:

• setting suitable learning challenges
• responding to pupils' diverse learning needs
• overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils.

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Setting suitable learning challenges

Teachers should aim to give every pupil the opportunity to experience success by taking each unit of work that the children will undertake and identify areas that may be within and different from the child’s experience. Teachers should try to incorporate both of these. It is important not to make assumptions about experiences.

Although all the DfES/QCA schemes of work for key stage 1 and 2 units are relevant for many children from a range of cultures, it may be appropriate to change a context in order to set a more suitable learning challenge. Examples of other contexts for key stage 1 could be musical instruments, stories as starting points, containers or toys. Food and textiles activities provide numerous opportunities for children to learn and talk about a variety of ways of living.

When setting investigating and evaluating activities teachers should:

• think about the products that the children may have experience of
• find examples from a range of countries and cultures, including local products
• allow the children time to investigate, draw and, if appropriate, label to identify materials, joints, finishes or moving parts
• use technical vocabulary so the children can learn the correct English word, but be aware that some words do not exist in, or cannot be translated into, other languages
• use a search engine in different languages to gain relevant information.

When setting focused practical tasks teachers should:

• identify the key skills or areas of knowledge and understanding to be covered
• allow time for exploration and investigation of materials, both familiar and unfamiliar
• plan hands-on activities for developing cutting, joining, assembling and finishing skills
• ensure that clear demonstrations are given relating to the correct use of tools
• constantly use correct technical vocabulary and try different ways of reinforcing the language
• produce displays relating to the activities as a reminder of what the children did, what they used and how they used it. Key vocabulary can also be displayed as reinforcement.

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When setting design and make assignments teachers should:

• try to make the context a challenge that all children can recognise. For example, a moving picture project could relate to a favourite story or a familiar vehicle, or it could be something that incorporates a simple mechanism that displays different colours or numbers to support their immediate learning. When discussing houses and homes, the teacher should ensure that there is a range of photos on display to show examples from around the world. The homes could be for people, animals, linked to a story, for teddy, or fantasy buildings. It is crucial not to reinforce stereotypes
• plan the possible support that might be needed from both adults and peers. Incorporate different methods of helping children to design, including exploring materials, working out ways of temporary joining, modelling ideas, and working alongside others
• if appropriate, give a simple writing frame or chart to be completed as part of the design
• use a variety of ways of evaluation such as creating a chart using pictures that the children can tick or cross, circle numbers or draw smiley faces; pairing children to talk in their first language; having children in a small group with an adult focusing on each final product using words and demonstration.

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Responding to pupils' diverse learning needs

The following specific actions have proved successful in responding to pupils’ diverse learning needs in a range of schools.

New entrants were:

• kept within the whole class where the focus for work was not different but the support was differentiated in order to secure motivation and concentration (examples include pairing with another child who spoke the same language or dialect, had a similar personality, or spoke a different language but had the ability to be patient)
• seated near the front of the class to ensure that they felt part of the group and had an equal opportunity to be part of any demonstration
• exposed to different teaching styles (such as kinaesthetic, visual and auditory) to help include all. Design and technology encourages many opportunities for hands-on activity, and including visual and concrete materials such as tools, materials and products, photographs, pictures, posters and illustrations provides an effective learning environment.

Teachers:

• started from the national curriculum but ensured that children were offered opportunities to contribute from their experiences
• ensured that there was more interaction and less direct teaching
• built in thinking time or ’wait time’ so that the children could gather their thoughts, explain themselves in an appropriate way or talk to a peer or adult in the first instance
• created a project board to reinforce learning and added to it as the work progressed
• used all appropriate technologies such as interactive whiteboards, digital cameras, CD-ROMs, the internet and overhead projectors to enhance different teaching and learning styles
• used an interactive whiteboard to use the internet and to store illustrations, photos, and children’s ideas to revisit later
• took digital photos at each stage of all the materials and tools used to be used as examples and reminders and in further language development. These could be made into a booklet (pictures with words and sentences), displayed in the class, made into individual flash cards for sequencing or used as matching cards for materials and relevant tools.

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Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils

Some newly arrived children will have needs that are linked to their progress in learning English. The 'English as an additional language' section provides guidance on this.

Good quality welcome arrangements and effective ethnic monitoring are essential. The 'Admission procedures' area of this site provides guidance on this.

Everyone who is part of the school should understand how all children bring a richness to it through the diversity of cultures and religions. They need to respect each contribution and learn from it. The school may have children from a different number of countries and cultures at various times. In order to overcome potential barriers to learning in design and technology in particular, it is important to ensure that the full range of cultures are represented in designing and making contexts and activities. The 'Culturally diverse and inclusive curriculum' area of this site gives guidance on this.

Teachers must ensure that evidence of learning is celebrated and fairly assessed taking into consideration children’s fluency in English. The 'Assessment for learning' area of this site gives guidance on how this might apply to new arrivals.

Although recognising potential barriers to learning and assessment can be difficult, it is important to gain as much information as possible, through a sensitive audit, about the experiences the children have had. This should include the materials the children have used, the skills they have experienced, the type of teaching and learning environment they are familiar with and their cultural, religious and social values. It is crucial to identify particular contexts that are not appropriate to use.

The information can be gained through, for example:

• talking to adults such as parents and community leaders/workers
• giving the children opportunities to explore different products and identifying their areas of interest so that these can be built upon
• giving the children a range of activities involving different materials, and opportunities to use skills of cutting, joining, assembling and finishing.

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What is the potential in the design and technology curriculum for valuing diversity and challenging racism?

The statement in the national curriculum about the importance of design and technology highlights the following points.

The subject prepares pupils to participate in tomorrow’s rapidly changing technologies

All children need to be prepared to take a full and active part in the world around them and understand how quickly things change. Some may already have much knowledge and understanding of, for example, electrical goods in their everyday lives. By celebrating this diversity of knowledge in classroom discussions the child can feel they are making a valuable contribution to the learning of others who may have no idea of how such goods operate or have limited experience of materials and their properties.

Pupils learn to think and intervene creatively to improve the quality of life

All children, whatever their culture, can learn to think for themselves, make decisions and choices, and understand that there are no right and wrong answers but only best solutions. The teacher can use children who already have these abilities to challenge racist assumptions, and more confident pupils can help others develop these skills. The teacher should help the children to understand that all ideas are valued and that solutions are varied. Through design and technology, children are provided with many different contexts in which to work and to develop and use practical skills.

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Pupils are encouraged to become autonomous and creative problem solvers, as individuals and members of a team

Whilst there are many opportunities for children to work on their own, there are also many that enable them to work together, making contributions that do not require spoken language, so they can be part of a team immediately. Practical activities also provide concrete situations that allow children to develop their spoken and written language skills, interacting with their peers and other adults.

Pupils must look for needs and wants and opportunities and respond to them by developing a range of ideas and making products and systems; they combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues, function and industrial practices

Young children are capable of deciding needs and wants for different users such as themselves, a family member or a teddy, and for a range of purposes, for example to keep warm and dry or to eat on a picnic. They can take part in sessions to develop practical skills such as cutting and joining while drawing on and learning to value those skills that they bring with them. They can use finishing techniques such as particular patterns and materials that they and their family have experience of, as well as learning new techniques to ensure their product has a quality finish. They can begin to think about environmental issues; in particular how we can reuse materials and not waste materials that we have. Some will build up their confidence through being asked to explain what experience they already have of this.

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Pupils reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and effects; all pupils can become discriminating and informed users of products and become innovators

Evaluating products provides opportunities for the children to examine everyday products that might be unfamiliar to them in a safe environment. In addition, they can ask questions, see how different products are used and start to think about ways in which they can be improved. They can relate these to products from previous diverse experiences and share them with others.

Case study

‘Handa’s surprise’: an example of good design and technology practice in year 1

Based on the story ‘Handa’s surprise’ by Eileen Browne, this case study describes the learning environment and the design and technology activities with a class that included children from culturally diverse backgrounds. Download it from the right-hand navigation bar.

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Useful websites

Please note: QCA is not responsible for the content of external sites

Beyton Middle School
The school’s website contains a 'Useful links' page.

Masabo Culture Company
A Canadian site about West African music, dance and storytelling. The site contains a learning resources links page.

National curriculum in action
This website uses pupils' work and case-study materials to show what the national curriculum in design and technology looks like in practice.

Nuffield Foundation: Primary design and technology
On this site there are examples of pupils' work, classroom materials to download, and other resources for teachers.

Oxfam
A useful site for people collecting products from different cultures.

QCA: Respect for all in design and technology
This guidance encourages teachers to reflect on the values embedded in existing educational approaches and materials. This page contains design and technology examples of good practice. The examples provide effective learning opportunities for pupils to value diversity and challenge racism. They focus on helping pupils to understand and appreciate aspects of cultural difference, context and change while challenging and extending their perceptions of themselves and other people.

Princeton online
A website that has a useful section on world cultures.

St Andrew's School, Bolton
This school's website contains lesson plan pages for a range of subjects including design and technology.

TakingITGlobal
This is a global online community that is a source of information on issues, opportunities to take action, and how to get involved locally, nationally and globally. Membership is free of charge and allows you to interact with various aspects of the website to contribute ideas, experiences and actions.

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum
The ‘Learning journeys’ area of this website provides a wide range of educational experiences to everyone of any age. Workshops involve groups actively and link directly to the national curriculum. You will find details of suitable courses for teachers in London.

Traidcraft
Traidcraft is the UK’s leading fair trade organisation. On the website you will find information about different countries and resources they produce which might support your teaching.

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