Design and Technology

At Angel Road Schools, we believe that all our children are potential designers and technologists of the future. Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject which prepares all young people to live in today’s design made world. Our Design and Technology curriculum allows pupils to develop their own creative capabilities, combining their design and making skills with the relevant knowledge and understanding to produce quality, functional products for both themselves and others in the wider world.

Our youngest children in the Early Years Foundation Stage begin developing their design knowledge and practical skills through creative and physical activities in the key areas of Understanding the World, Physical Development and Expressive Arts and Design. These fundamental skills are further developed using the Primary Knowledge Curriculum scheme during Key Stages One and Two. This knowledge rich and practical curriculum allows children to develop and improve on a range of skills in three key areas:

• Cook – children learn how to cook from recipes which gradually build basic culinary skills. They also learn about concepts relating to food such as nutrition, seasonality, food production, transportation and food from different cultures.
• Build - children learn about the creation of structures and mechanical and electrical devices and create products such as cars, moving cards, toys and books. They also learn about concepts such as forces, motion and the properties of materials.
• Sew – children use fabric and thread to learn basic sewing techniques to create objects which demonstrate embroidery, applique, weaving and plaiting. Through this, they also learn about properties of different fabrics, fast fashion, waste and recycling of materials.

Each academic year, children cover each of the three key areas. This allows them to build on the knowledge and skills they have learnt previously and use these to support their current learning. For example, in Year 2 children are introduced to the running stitch in their Sew unit. They will then revisit this stitch in Years 3 and 4, with the aim of this becoming an independent and embedded skill, while also learning new and more complex stitches to move their learning on further.

Our Design and Technology curriculum also builds important links with a range of core and non-core subjects. Elements of maths, science, history, geography and art are all linked to the Design and Technology units that the pupils undertake. This enables children to see the interconnection between subjects and how design and engineering has shaped our past, present and will continue to shape our future.

Children at Angel Road Schools enjoy Design and Technology and are excited and engaged in their learning. All children have the ability to achieve through the structured research, design, make and evaluate process which embeds each unit. We have high ambitions for all our children, including those with SEND and from disadvantaged backgrounds and scaffold and support learning where appropriate to ensure all children achieve well.

Subject Documents:

Design and Technology Curriculum Overview

Design and Technology Subject Rationale

To see how the curriculum builds on our EYFS curriculum, see our whole school curriculum overview here.