Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Using creativity and imagination, pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.

The National Curriculum for Design and Technology aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
• build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users
• critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others
• understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook.

Click here to view the full National Curriculum for Design and Technology KS1 and KS2

At Stepgates Community School, we acknowledge that all learning can be cross curricular, especially in Design and Technology, so we incorporate aspects of STEM learning within our DT lessons. Some examples of these are sustainability, recycling, eco-schools, PSHE, respect for the environment, engineering, science, maths and our world around us.

Our aim is for children to be able to use age appropriate technological and investigative vocabulary to discuss, explain and reason ideas, describe processes, carry out experiments and make products.  This will enable children to have the appropriate skills to communicate their ideas and demonstrate understanding effectively in their next academic year. Children will develop explorative skills and love of an iterative curriculum, asking and answering questions such as; What happens if? How can I test? How could I do this better? What does this mean? How can I improve? and so on.

Our Design and Technology learning is implemented across all ages through a (3 or 4 year) cyclical curriculum, with the Autumn term project of each academic year changing year-on-year to ensure that a broad range of targeted skills are being taught from the National Curriculum. In doing so, children will have covered all aspects of the Design and Technology curriculum by the end of their key stage, whilst also building on their skills year-on-year through multiple different learning opportunities.

Each Autumn term, KS1 and KS2 take part in the same project across their key stage, differentiated for each class’ age range. This targeted, differentiated teaching enables our class teachers, and the Design and Technology coordinator, to assess children’s learning and development to a higher degree, and clearly see the progression of skills across the age range. In the Spring term, each class carry out a savoury dish inspired cooking project, and in the Summer term each class create a product specifically tailored to their termly class topic e.g. Space. Our Design and Technology learning is carried out and embedded within our foundation subject carousel afternoons, and each activity is planned for and taught to be purposeful with a ‘real life’ context.

In doing so, the profile of Design and Technology is raised. The impact of our approach to DT is that pupils learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. At Stepgates, we believe that high-quality design and technology education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of the nation.