Intent

At St Cuthbert’s, we believe that the skills taught in our DT curriculum are an invaluable part of the 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.

The scheme of work allows children to build an awareness of the impact of design and technology on our lives and encourages them to become resourceful, enterprising citizens who will have the skills to contribute to future design advancements.

Alongside developing a range of useful skills throughout the variety of topics taught in DT, we place a huge emphasis on the process, which aims to build on children’s understanding that planning, understanding and adapting are integral parts of the design process.  

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 highquality 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