To fulfil the requirements of the national curriculum, four key strands run throughout our Design and Technology curriculum. These are Design, Make, Evaluate and Technical Knowledge.
National Curriculum Aims Four Key Strands
The four strands run throughout each of our design and technology units within the six key areas
The six key areas are revisited, with Electrical Systems and Digital World beginning in KS2.
| EYFS (Reception) Key Stage 1 and 2 | |||
| Cooking and Nutrition Where food comes from, balanced diet, preparation and cooking skills. Kitchen hygiene and safety. Following recipes. | Mechanisms / Mechanical Systems Mimic natural movements using mechanisms such as cams, followers, levers and sliders. | Structures Material functional and aesthetic properties, strength and stability, stiffen and reinforce structures. | Textiles Fastening, sewing, decorative and functional fabric techniques including cross stitch, blanket stitch and appliqué. |
| Key Stage 2 | |||
| Digital World Program products to monitor and control, develop designs and virtual models using 2D and 3D CAD software. | Electrical Systems Material functional and aesthetic properties, strength and stability, stiffen and reinforce structures. | ||
The Design Process
The Design and technology National Curriculum outlines the three main stages of the design process: design, make and evaluate. Each unit follows these stages, to form a full project. Each stage of the design process is underpinned by technical knowledge which encompasses the contextual, historical and technical understanding, required for each strand.
Cooking and nutrition has a separate section in the D&T National Curriculum, with additional focus on specific principles, skills and techniques in food, including where food comes from, diet and seasonality. Cooking and nutrition units still follow the design process, for example by tasking the pupils to develop recipes for a specific set of requirements (design criteria) and to suggest methods of packaging the food product including the nutritional information.
Design and Technology Long Term Overviews
Other Design Technology Strategies
| Retrieve and Remember Retrieval Practice is the act of remembering previously taught content. • Recap and recall • Flashback 4 / quiz | Every lesson begins with the ‘Recap and recall’ section which allows pupils retrieval practice of key knowledge relevant to the upcoming lesson. This section also provides teachers with an opportunity to make informal judgements about whether pupils have retained prior learning and are ready to move on. |
| Oracy Learning to talk / Learning through talk. • Oracy Springboards • Encouraging opportunities to talk • Developing Oracy skills   | Through our D&T curriculum, pupils have opportunities to develop their oracy skills by: • Presenting their design ideas or products to audiences of different sizes. • Explaining designs, preferences or final products. • Role-playing from the point of view of the user. • Discussing products and design ideas using new vocabulary. • Collaborating by organising tasks within a group. • Critiquing others’ designs and products. • Reflecting on and responding to feedback towards their own designs and products. • Summarising design ideas |
Vocabulary Boost | Vocabulary should be taught explicitly to children with vocabulary taught taken from our Design and Technology vocabulary progression document. Vocabulary boost is used to teach unfamiliar vocabulary. Vocabulary for each lesson is readily accessible. Images are taken from either Widgit, noun project or Kapow. Every lesson should start with vocabulary boost. |
Golden Sentences  | Golden Sentences help children understand and retain curriculum content. Children learn to compose ‘golden sentences’ that serve as complete thoughts and are syntactically sound. |
POP Tasks | Portrait of Progress (PoP) tasks act as the vehicle through which formative judgements can be made regarding a child’s learning and progress. These will happen at various points within and after a unit depending on when teachers feel these are best placed. These are always printed on green paper. |
| Questioning • Stem Sentence Questions E.g. Why do we need light? Stem Sentence: We need light …. • Hinge Sentence Questions • Cold Calling • Think, pair, share • Exit tickets | Questioning is the act of eliciting information from pupils that (a) requires recall to support memory retention of taught content and (b) helps the teacher check for level of understanding and (c) help the teacher to identify and address misconceptions. |
| Success Criteria | Success Criteria should be made available to children in each lesson. |
Adaptive Teaching  | Learning should be accessible for all children. Adaptive teaching should be considered in every lesson. |
Summative Assessment | Each unit of work assesses children’s understanding and retention of key knowledge using an assessment quiz with multiple choice questions and one open-ended question. This should be used at the beginning and end of a unit. In addition, each unit uses a knowledge catcher. This can be used at the end of a unit and gives children the opportunity to further demonstrate their understanding of the key concepts covered. Assessment quizzes, and skills and knowledge catchers provide teachers with a record of summative assessment as evidence of progression throughout the year and as pupils move between key stages. |
Knowledge Organisers  | Each unit has a knowledge organiser which should be glued into pupil’s books and referred to as the unit progresses. Please colour the vocabulary once it has been taught through vocabulary boost, and add to the curriculum board. The knowledge organisers condenses the knowledge and skills in a pupil friendly way to support the retention of knowledge. |