Subject Leader - Miss W Banes
What do we want our pupils to learn?
Our design and technology teaching aims to inspire pupils to become curious, creative and innovative thinkers with an early understanding of how products are designed and made, in other words, to think like designers and engineers! The intention is for pupils to develop the confidence to identify problems, generate ideas, plan and create products and evaluate their outcomes.
Our lessons seek to raise pupils’ awareness of how design and technology shape the way they live, work and interact with the world. We encourages pupils to become resourceful, enterprising individuals who have the skills to contribute to and improve the world around them.
What we are teaching...
Year 1
Mechanisms: Making a moving storybook
Exploring slider mechanisms and the movement they output to design, make and evaluate a moving storybook.
Textiles: Puppets
Design, join and decorate a puppet from the picture book story 'Whatever next?!'
Cooking & Nutrition: Smoothies
Preparing foods by cutting and juicing and selecting fruits and vegetables to create a smoothie to meet a design brief.
Mechanisms: Wheels & Axles
Making wheels and an axle to create a pull-along toy.
Year 2
Structures: A Chair for a Bear
Testing the strength of materials and making a strong and stable chair.
Mechanisms: Making a Moving Monster
Use a combination of pivots, levers & linkages to make a moving monster.
Mechanisms: Fairground Wheel
Designing and creating a functional fairground wheel so that the wheel rotates and the structure stands freely.
How we teach...
Recap and recall
Each lesson begins with a short activity revisiting prior learning. This helps reinforce key knowledge, activate long-term memory and create connections between past and new learning.
Recap and recall activities are varied to keep the start of the lesson engaging and fun while still supporting active recall.
Attention grabber
A short, engaging activity designed to hook pupils into the new learning in the lesson.
This could be a thought-provoking question, a quick investigation or an interactive discussion to spark curiosity and enthusiasm for the topic.
Main event
The core part of the lesson, where pupils engage in activities that develop their understanding of the learning objective.
This includes a mixture of teacher modelling, guided practice and independent or collaborative tasks tailored to support all learners.
Wrapping up
A final reflective activity that consolidates learning.
This could involve reviewing the success criteria, discussing key learning or applying knowledge in a different context to assess understanding and encourage deeper thinking.
What pupils will have learnt to do...
Within our D&T curriculum, knowledge is defined using three interrelated categories:
- Substantive knowledge – the factual and conceptual understanding that underpins the design and creation of products, such as knowing how structures gain stability or how nutrients contribute to a healthy diet.
- Disciplinary knowledge – the thinking processes used by designers, including how problems are explored, decisions are justified and ideas are refined through evaluation and feedback.
- Procedural knowledge – the practical skills and techniques pupils need to make products effectively and safely, such as joining, cutting, shaping or finishing.
