DT
October 2025
“Let’s go invent tomorrow, rather than worry about what happened yesterday.” Steve Jobs
The National Curriculum for Design and Technology aims to ensure that all children:
- develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world
- build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users
- critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others
- understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook.
Intent – What are we aiming to achieve?
Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. It should provide children with a real life context for learning. We want our children to be inspired by engineers, designers, chefs and architects and to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products with a real life purpose. We aim to, wherever possible, link work to other curriculum areas such as Maths. English, Science, Computing and Art. The children are also given opportunities to reflect upon and evaluate past and present Design and Technology, its uses and its effectiveness and are encouraged to become innovators, problem-solvers and risk-takers.
The curriculum includes:-
- Designing
- Making
- Evaluating
- Technical knowledge
- Cooking and nutrition skills
Several aspects of DT are taught and reinforced through our Forest School Programme and our biannual STEM week.4
Inclusion
Inclusion in DT (Design and Technology) can mean adapting lessons to support all pupils, including those with special educational needs (SEN), disabilities, or those who are disadvantaged. Strategies include providing word banks, pre-teaching technical vocabulary, using visual aids, and focusing on the design and ideas process rather than just practical execution. The goal is to ensure all students can participate, progress, and make a good progress by matching teaching to their individual needs and using a range of approaches.
Strategies for inclusive DT
- Support with language:Provide word banks and picture resources to help with subject-specific vocabulary, pre-teaching concepts to learners who need it.
- Focus on process:Emphasize the design process and the exploration of multiple solutions to a problem, not just the final outcome.
- Adapt practical skills:Offer support with using tools and measuring, ensuring the assessment focus is on the student's ideas and design skills as much as their practical execution.
- Offer varied teaching methods:Use strategies like small group teaching to provide targeted support and encourage students to take ownership of their learning.
- Differentiate activities:Ensure activities are adaptable to different abilities, such as allowing more time or providing additional support with complex tasks. For example, students who are gifted in DT could be challenged with more complex designs or with leading a group on a project.
- Use visual aids:Incorporate visual resources to support learning styles and help students understand instructions and concepts.
- Encourage peer support:Facilitate peer learning where students can work together and support each other's learning.
- Adapt the curriculum:Consider how to incorporate diverse cultural backgrounds and perspectives into projects to make them more relevant to all students.
- Use constructive feedback:Teach students how to give and receive constructive feedback, and how to use it to improve their work.
- Assess appropriately:Use the national curriculum assessment framework to consider each child's attainment and progress against expected levels, and adapt teaching accordingly.
DT OVERVIEW DOCUMENT FOR YEAR A
DT OVERVIEW DOCUMENT FOR YEAR B
SKILLS PROGRESSION DOCUMENT KS1
SKILLS PROGRESSION DOCUMENT KS2