At St Mary's, we are creating our future designers, technicians, innovators and entrepreneurs! 

Through our Design & Technology curriculum, we want to give them the skills and confidence that they need to take risks. We want our children to be innovative, resourceful and resilient. 

Our DT curriculum, embedded among our school values,  promotes all these skills and attributes as well as encouraging and strengthening their problem solving skills, which can then be applied across other areas of the curriculum and throughout their life. 

Through DT, we are giving children tools to 'let their light shine'. 

DT units are carefully planned and sequenced to ensure a progression of skills, based on the National Curriculum.  Our units cover all aspects of DT: food, textiles, mechanisms, structures and electrical systems. 

DT units:

• Explore and evaluate existing products.

• Design a new product, following a design brief and design criteria. 

• Make their product.

Iteration process: Children will be encouraged to reflect on and improve their designs, making changes before the product is finalised. 

• Evaluate their own product. 

Design processes are rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to the learning.  Children are given the opportunity to make choices about materials and tools used.  A range of tools and materials are provided for each unit. Here, Year 3 children are working with a STEM ambassador to create strong bridges. 

Children have the opportunity to further develop their DT skills through lunch time activities, such as den building. 

Our Design Technology curriculum begins in the Early Years. Here, children have a natural curiosity and creativeness which we harness and develop. Children explore and use a variety of media, materials and tools through a combination of adult-led and child initiated activities.  Children also access DT through continuous provision and lunch time activities. 

Teachers carefully plan DT lessons to ensure all pupils can make progress towards their end goal. DT lessons incorporate elements of our St Mary's pedagogy. For example, children use thinking maps to collect and organise their ideas. Teachers use Kagan structures to encourage children to collaborate and work together to share and clarify ideas. Teachers use questioning to stimulate discussion and encourage critical thinking. 

A DT unit is often taught over the course of a full day to allow children to immerse themselves in the design and making process.