Intent

At St Clement’s, we believe that the skills taught in our Design & Technology curriculum are an invaluable part of children’s education. The Design and technology scheme of work from Kapow primary aims to inspire pupils to be innovative and creative thinkers who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation, and evaluation. We want pupils to develop the confidence to take risks, through drafting design concepts, modelling, and testing, and to be reflective learners who evaluate their work and the work of others.

Implementation

Design Technology is taught weekly for three half-terms a year, alternating with Art and Design. We use the Kapow scheme of work to guide the planning of Design Technology lessons, which we also adapt to suit the needs of the children and to aim to make the DT learning as relevant as possible. 

Design and Technology skills and understanding are built into every lesson, following a practical and interactive process of designing and making.  Through revisiting and consolidating skills, lesson planning and resourcing choices help children build on prior knowledge alongside introducing new skills, knowledge and challenges.  The revision and introduction of key vocabulary are built into each lesson. Our children learn to take risks, be reflective, innovative, enterprising and resilient.  

Through the evaluation of past and present technology, they can reflect upon the impact of Design Technology on everyday life and the wider world.  Through these lessons, the aim is to inspire pupils to develop a love of Design and Technology, by also seeing how it has helped shaped the ever-evolving technological world that we live in.

As a school and in accordance with the National Curriculum’s Programme of Study, we 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

Reception Stage 

At St Clement's school we know the importance of providing our children with practical and hands-on experiences. Children in reception have the opportunity to work indoors and outdoors to develop their fine motor skills. Children are given practical problems to solve and thus become both critical and resilient thinkers. 

Key Stage 1

Children explore Design and Technology through progressive units following the strand structures of mechanisms, food and nutrition, structures and textiles.

Key Stage 2

Building on the skills and knowledge taught in the strands in Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2 carries on with the strands taught in Key Stage 1 with the addition of electrical systems, mechanical systems and the digital world.