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Our school’s vision has been collaboratively created with input from key stakeholders within our community. At the core of our curriculum lies the design and technology principles which serve as the foundation in which we plan for design and technology, ensuring that students receive high quality teaching, enhance their acquisition of design and technology knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art.

Curriculum Coverage

We believe the design and technology curriculum should serve as mirrors, reflecting the students’ own experiences, and as windows, offering insights into the lives and stories of diverse individuals. With this philosophy, we choose subject content from the National Curriculum and create schemes of work in design and technology that reflect our unique community. To enhance our design and

technology projects, each year group engages in focused practical tasks, allowing children to develop specific skills using various techniques, processes, and equipment.

Curriculum Progression

Our design and technology curriculum comprises of three interrelated strands of knowledge:

Procedural knowledge

Procedural knowledge represents the skills of a designer. This knowledge is vertically integrated so that the children revisit and deepen their knowledge and understanding in each year group as they progress through school. By structuring our curriculum this way, we ensure that students have the opportunity to consistently improve their abilities over time.

This approach facilitates a clear progression, enabling students to build on foundational skills and explore more advanced techniques as they move through the year groups. By promoting this iterative learning process, students develop proficiency in various artistic techniques and gain a deeper appreciation for the creative journey.

Disciplinary knowledge

Our curriculum deeply incorporates the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge. This knowledge is integrated across different year groups, allowing children to revisit and deepen their understanding of how design and technology concepts are established and refined as they progress through school.

This knowledge is represented in our curriculum ‘Learning Points.’ As students advance, they apply these overarching aims to specific programs of study outlined in the National Curriculum, enabling us to develop detailed and specific learning outcomes. There is a clear progression in the inquiries our students explore.

Substantive knowledge

Substantive knowledge encompasses the design and technology content taught in each year group and is presented as specific learning points in our planning—the key content we want children to remember. In selecting these learning points, we ensured that a diverse range of designers and products are included. To enhance design and technology across the curriculum, we made deliberate choices to study various designers and strands, ensuring our curriculum is both representative of and sensitive to the community we serve.

‘Big’ Ideas


Repetition and retrieval

Our design and technology curriculum is meticulously structured to incorporate high levels of repetition, ensuring that our students can achieve more and retain more as they progress through their school years. From Year 1 to Year 6, the strands of procedural knowledge (how to do things) and disciplinary knowledge (understanding concepts and context) are continuously revisited and developed. This consistent repetition ensures that by the end of Key Stage 2, our students can apply their artistic skills and knowledge with a high level of independence and confidence.

Throughout their design projects, we share substantial amounts of substantive and disciplinary knowledge with our students. Our planning includes specific learning points that outline the exact knowledge we want children to know, remember, and apply. To support this, we use dedicated design books for focused practice, enabling students to develop and embed specific skills, such as drawing plans from different perspectives. This approach ensures that students not only acquire but also retain and effectively apply essential design and technology knowledge.

Assessment

We believe that assessment in design and technology should go beyond merely knowing facts. Teachers use a variety of assessment methods to evaluate students’ progress in their DT learning. At the end of each unit, we assess the children’s ability to apply their knowledge through a final ‘Composite Task.’ This task provides insight into their ability to integrate both disciplinary and substantive knowledge.

Vocabulary progression documents

Design and Technology Vocabulary Document

Long term plan