At St Leonard’s Lower School, we are growing and learning together with God’s Love and our Christian values are embedded in all that we do.

We recognise that every child is a unique individual within God’s creation and it is our aim is to provide learning opportunities that enable our children to develop deep roots to enable them to flourish and succeed. 

Our Design and Technology curriculum is ambitious and inclusive for all, enabling each child to learn and develop the skills and knowledge they need to thrive. It is a relevant, creative, exciting and challenging curriculum planned to support all learners to achieve their full potential, to know more and remember more, and to be prepared for their next steps in learning.

Intent

At St Leonard's Lower we use the Kapow Primary Scheme of work to support teaching and learning in Design and technology. Our Design and Technology curriculum aims to inspire pupils to be innovative and creative thinkers who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation, and evaluation. We want pupils to develop the confidence to take risks, through drafting design concepts, modelling, and testing and to be reflective learners who evaluate their work and the work of others. We aim to build an awareness of the impact of design and technology on our lives and encourage pupils to become resourceful, enterprising citizens who will have the skills to contribute to future design advancements.

Our Design and technology scheme of work enables pupils to meet the end of key stage attainment targets in the National curriculum and the aims also align with those in the National curriculum.

EYFS (Reception) units provide opportunities for pupils’ to work towards the Development matters statements and the Early Learning Goals.

Implementation

Our Design and technology curriculum has a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these five strands across each year group and is carefully mapped against the National Curriculum. Our Progression of skills shows the skills and knowledge that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.

Our children respond to design briefs and scenarios that require consideration of the needs of others, developing their skills in five key areas: 

● Mechanisms

● Structures

● Textiles

● Food

● Electrical systems (KS2)

Each of our key areas follows the design process (design, make and evaluate) and has a particular theme and focus from the technical knowledge or cooking and nutrition section of the curriculum. Our curriculum is a spiral curriculum, with key areas revisited again and again with increasing complexity, allowing our children to revisit and build on their previous learning. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including practical hands-on, computer-based and inventive tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with a variety of learning styles.

Lessons are adapted to ensure the work can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers for each unit support pupils in building a foundation of factual knowledge by encouraging recall of key facts and vocabulary.

We believe that strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective and robust Design and Technology curriculum. Through Kapow teacher videos our teachers develop subject knowledge and have ongoing CPD. 

Our Design and Technology lessons are timetabled weekly and delivered over a half term every term (working alongside our Art and Design curriculum). In addition our children have opportunities to take part in a range of Design and Technology through seasonal events and themed weeks. Design and Technology work is regularly celebrated within our school environment and promoted through our school website and social media. 

Impact

We monitor impact of teaching and learning through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. In each lesson we assess the children against the learning objective, this helps us to keep records of formative assessments for each child, to adapt our teaching and learning and to provide support to individual pupils. At the end of each unit of work we make a summative assessment as to whether pupils are working at the expected level of understanding, at a greater depth level of understanding or below the expected level of understanding. 

The expected impact of our Design and technology scheme of work is that children will:

➔ Understand the functional and aesthetic properties of a range of materials and resources.

➔ Understand how to use and combine tools to carry out different processes for shaping, decorating, and manufacturing products.

➔ Build and apply a repertoire of skills, knowledge and understanding to produce high quality, innovative outcomes, including models, prototypes and products to fulfil the needs of users, clients, and scenarios.

➔ Understand and apply the principles of healthy eating, diets, and recipes, including key processes, food groups and cooking equipment.

➔ Have an appreciation for key individuals, inventions, and events in history and of today that impact our world.

➔ Recognise where our decisions can impact the wider world in terms of community, social and environmental issues.

➔ Self-evaluate and reflect on learning at different stages and identify areas to improve.

➔ Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Design and technology.

➔ Leave St Leonard's Lower School equipped with a range of techniques and the confidence and creativity to create a strong foundation for their Design and Technology learning at middle school and beyond.