At St. Helen’s we intend to design a curriculum which combines skills, knowledge, concepts and values to enable children to tackle real problems. Design and Technology can be found in many of the objects children use each day and is a part of children’s immediate experiences. Design and Technology encourages children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team. Evaluation is an integral part of the design process and allows children to adapt and improve their product, this is a key skill which they need throughout their life. The children are also given opportunities to reflect upon and evaluate past and present design technology, its uses and its effectiveness and they are encouraged to become innovators and risk-takers.

In order to implement this, we follow the National Curriculum and link topics to ensure a well-structured approach to this creative subject. Our skills progression document aims to give guidance on the progression of design and technology knowledge, skills and techniques across the year groups. We teach these skills progressively to ensure that all children are able to learn and practice in order to develop as they move through the school. Children use sketchbooks to show the build-up of knowledge and skills needed to create a purposeful product and are encouraged to record independently and freely in their sketchbooks.

The impact of this will be measured by the children making progress through our objectives on Arbor. When children finish at St. Helen’s they will have the skills, knowledge and vocabulary that they need to move forward in their learning, alongside opportunities to apply their knowledge to different situations. Children will be able to discuss their own thoughts, ideas, processing and evaluations of work.

Practical skills, techniques and vocabulary for different areas

This document aims to give guidance on the progression of design and technology skills and techniques across the year groups and to aid planning. It can also be used to differentiate work, and expectations, appropriately for pupils working above and below age-related expectations (particularly SEND pupils and GD pupils). Potential GD pupils should also be encouraged to produce work with greater independence as well as be encouraged to experiment with and use materials and methods of their own choice. Their increasingly critical thinking and in-depth evaluation of their own and others’ designs or work should be reflected in their sketch books. Refer to the long term plan to check coverage of skills taught in previous year groups. Also refer to the Arbor document which breaks down objectives into Design, Making and Evaluating. This document breaks down ‘Making: Practical skills and techniques’ into specific areas of DT.