At St Stephen’s CE Primary School, Design & Technology gives children the opportunity to turn their ideas into something useful. Through practical projects, pupils explore how things work, solve problems and create products with a clear purpose and user in mind.
Our vision, “Nurture, Grow, Flourish,” runs through our approach. We nurture curiosity and creativity, grow practical skills and technical knowledge, and help children flourish as confident, resourceful problem-solvers.
We want children to see themselves as designers and makers who can:
Our school-designed scheme of work builds knowledge and skills progressively from Early Years to Year 6. Children explore five connected areas:
In Early Years, children explore materials, construct models, join components and talk about their creations through purposeful play. These experiences provide foundations for later designing and making.
As pupils move through school, projects become more demanding. Children use tools with increasing accuracy, make more independent choices and explain how their designs meet a particular need.
Children apply their learning through a range of practical projects. Each unit develops specific knowledge and techniques while revisiting earlier learning.
Our knowledge organisers and word mats introduce the key vocabulary and ideas for each unit. They support learning in school and give families useful starting points for conversations at home.
Who are the people we learn about in each Design Technology unit?
Children encounter designers, inventors, engineers, makers and food specialists whose work connects with their projects. These examples help pupils explore how people develop ideas, solve problems and meet different needs.
Our focus people include local connections, such as Benjamin and William Jowett, alongside people associated with food, textiles, paper engineering and electrical design. Some units explore a craft or professional role rather than one named individual.
Investigate → Design → Make → Evaluate → Improve
Successful design begins with understanding a need: Who is the product for? What must it do? What would make it work well?
Our curriculum is guided by our golden thread:
“Learning is shaped through questioning, developed through talk, and secured through applyin knowledge.”
In DT, children ask questions, explain their thinking and discuss possible solutions. We explicitly teach technical vocabulary so pupils can describe materials, mechanisms and processes accurately.
Sentence stems help children communicate their decisions:
– “My product is for…”
– “I chose this material because…”
– “This part works by…”
– “When I tested it, I noticed…”
– “I could improve it by…”
Through Retrieval Roots, knowledge organisers and practical application, children revisit important learning and use it in new situations.
Everyday activities offer excellent opportunities to think like a designer:
Our music knowledge organisers show the key ideas and vocabulary children are learning in each unit. They help pupils revisit their learning and give families an easy way to talk about the music, musicians and new skills children are discovering.
