Curriculum D&T

At St James’ Catholic Primary School, we believe that design and technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. We also believe that design and technology encourages our children to think creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team. At St James’, we encourage children to use their creativity and imagination to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts whilst considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. We aim to, wherever possible, work within a creative curriculum and endeavour to link work to other disciplines such as mathematics, science, computing and art. The children are also given opportunities to reflect upon and evaluate past and present designs considering their uses and effectiveness. In all design and technology lessons, children will be encouraged to become innovators and risk-takers.

Early Years

The EYFS team will facilitate creative opportunities to develop children’s key skills and techniques within the EYFS curriculum. There will be a focus on developing fine motor skills and learning how to plan, design and produce a finished project. Children in EYFS, where appropriate, will be included in whole school projects, workshops, events and competitions associated with design and technology.

KS1 and KS2

The design and technology curriculum has been created to help children to design purposeful, functional and appealing products for themselves and others. They will be taught how to follow a set of criteria and how to communicate their ideas to others. They will learn how to select from and use a range of tools and equipment safely to perform practical tasks and how to choose selectively from a wide range of materials and components. They also learn how to evaluate their designs.

At St James’ Catholic Primary School, we use a range of creative and practical activities to develop knowledge and skills required for the interactive process of designing and making. The children will be encouraged to work in a range of relevant contexts, such as: home, school, leisure, culture, enterprise and industry.

The design and technology curriculum has been created first and foremost to develop the creative, technical and practical expertise to perform everyday tasks. It has also been designed to encourage children to have the confidence to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.

Through careful implementation, the design and technology curriculum will support children to build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users. It will also help them critique and evaluate their own and other’s work.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
• Images of the children’s practical learning.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Children’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
• Termly tracking and reporting of standards across the curriculum.
• Marking of work in books.

Children in Foundation Stage are assessed within expressive art and design and their progress is tracked termly.

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