Design & Technology

Curriculum overview

Design and Technology is about providing opportunities for students to combine designing and making with knowledge and understanding of the process and their audience in order to create quality products.

At Joy Lane Primary School, DT offers opportunities for children to develop their skills and knowledge in design, structures, mechanisms, electrical control and a range of materials, including food. The exciting projects and opportunities on offer enable and encourage children's independence and creativity while reflecting on important issues. We feel it is vital to nurture creativity and innovation through design and explore the designed and made world in which we all live and work, enabling and encouraging children to constantly reflect through a ‘plan, do, review’ cycle. DT also allows our young explorers to acquire and apply Maths and English skills in a fun, practical way, putting these subjects into context and making them easier to digest and understand. The subject also links closely with Art and Science and enables children to utilise creative thinking and problem solving skills, while developing a strong understanding of health and safety.

We recognise and value the characteristics that children display when they are learning effectively, and DT provides a variety of opportunities for children to seek and be motivated by a challenge, pay attention to detail, persist when challenges occur, make links and bounce back after difficulties. The value of these skills is of utmost importance in real life beyond the classroom, creating lifelong learners.

DT activities are taught in a variety of ways across the school, sometimes in blocks of taught time e.g. Enterprise Week or as individual lessons as part of a selected topic. DT activities are planned to ensure continuity and progression by building on the specific knowledge, skills and understanding contained in the subject profile. Engaging units of work are planned using a combination of real-life situations and cross-curricular links. Children engage with the appropriate stages of design depending on their year group and follow on to test, evaluate and edit their end products.

To see how the DT Curriculum Overview translates to the classroom, have a look at our Year Group Curriculum Webs:
Reception / Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 /  Year 4 / Year 5 / Year 6 / Osyters SRP