Design Technology at St Wulstan's

At the heart of our curriculum, we have the Five ‘Cs’ which, as a school, we believe our integral to our planning process in order to ensure that our children receive a first-class education. The five C’s inform our planning process in all subjects, and consist of the following headings: content, coherence, compassion, creativity and critical.

Content: We begin our planning by ensuring that we are covering the ‘content’ of the national curriculum and we are aware of the disciplinary and substantive knowledge we’d like our children to gain.  

Coherence: Our curriculum is planned so that it connects in sensible, logical ways so that children can build on their prior knowledge. Connections made are done explicitly and with relevance in order to ensure that children’s knowledge becomes embedded into Long term memory. We ensure that connections are made from lesson to lesson, Topic to Topic, and year to year. 

Compassion: Compassion is at the heart of our planning, so that as a school, we create a community of nurturing, compassionate and loving children, who have a positive impact on our forever changing world. 

Creativity: By planning and delivering lessons with creativity at the heart, we are able to develop the fluency of knowledge through a process of interpretation, experimentation, connection and play.  

Critical: Finally, we plan and deliver lessons which encourage children to question and compare different concepts so that as a school community, we can continuously learn from the past

In Key Stage One your child will learn to:

• design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria
• generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through talking, drawing, templates, mock-ups and, where appropriate, information and communication technology

• select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing]
• select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics

• explore and evaluate a range of existing products
• evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria

• build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable
• explore and use mechanisms [for example, levers, sliders, wheels and axles], in their products.

In Key Stage Two your child will learn to:

• use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups
• generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional and exploded diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer-aided design

• select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing], accurately
• select from and use a wider range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their functional properties and aesthetic qualities

• investigate and analyse a range of existing products
• evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work
• understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world

• apply their understanding of how to strengthen, stiffen and reinforce more complex structures
• understand and use mechanical systems in their products [for example, gears, pulleys, cams, levers and linkages]
• understand and use electrical systems in their products [for example, series circuits incorporating switches, bulbs, buzzers and motors]
• apply their understanding of computing to program, monitor and control their products.

Look at some of the things we have been creating in D and T...