At Hallam Primary School, the teaching and learning of Design and Technology curriculum is planned to engage and excite children and to provide them with opportunities to develop their understanding and skills in practical design, construction, engineering and problem-solving skills to create quality products. They are encouraged to be creative and innovative, and to consider important issues such as sustainability and enterprise.

We intend that our children will:

• Understand the importance of the designing, making and evaluating process and to think critically about how best to create a product.
• Use, where relevant, market research to inform their design.
• Think critically and reflect upon their design throughout the whole project and to make changes/improvements where necessary.
• Ensure their products have an agreed purpose/intended user to ensure children consider sustainability, resources, cost and consumer needs.
• Learn about the history of their products and analyse how designers and engineers in the UK or around the world have utilised their skills to create quality products fit for purpose.
• Become proficient in employing relevant skills and using different tools to allow them to execute their design.
• Reflect on whether their product is fit for purpose by considering the relevant audience.
• Critically review their product and reflect on what they might have done differently to improve it. 
• Develop an understanding of food hygiene and preparation skills.

A carefully planned, progressive and sequenced curriculum allows pupils to explore the designed and made world, analysing how things work to then help them successfully create their own products for particular purposes and users. They are able to develop their creativity skills each year as the curriculum allows for many projects to be led by the children’s own ideas and investigations. They revisit techniques throughout school so they can build on previous knowledge and make progress as designers. Medium-term plans and teaching and learning show progression across all key stages within the strands of Design and Technology following the structure of research, design, make and evaluate. The DT lead will ensure a regular programme of monitoring and evaluation, and the celebration of good practice informs our commitment to improving teaching and learning Design and Technology at Hallam. 

Design and Technology:

• Designing: generate ideas, market research, communicate ideas (talking, sketching, templates, mock-ups and prototypes), produce design specification.
• Making: consider the main stages, select tools and equipment, reflect on costs, time constraints and resources.
• Evaluating: compare outcomes to original design, test product with intended user, consider peer/self-evaluations by identifying strengths and areas for improvement with product.

Food, Cooking and Nutrition:

• Research: market research, ingredients and skills
• Food Hygiene
• Fundamental cookery skills, including knife skills.
• Evaluate by critiquing their research / recipe / execution and reviewing what they might have done differently to improve their outcome.

Technical Knowledge:

• The specific aspect of D&T the children are working on will be shared at the beginning of a project to support them as designers.
• The focus of the project will be discussed and referred to throughout the process to support them as designers.
• Children will be expected to know and use technical vocabulary relevant to the project.

The use of Kapow Primary is an extra tool to support teachers in delivering teaching sessions and is actively used as a tool to enable children to understand expectations by the end of the unit. New vocabulary is taught within the unit and reinforced throughout the year. The curriculum will allow skills and knowledge to be consolidated by revisiting and building upon key skills taught in previous years.

• Children are engaged, curious and resilient in Design and Technology lessons.
• Children develop their ability to follow a design.
• Children understand the design process of designing, making and evaluating within every project.
• Children develop their ability to critically reflect and assess at all stages of the process: design, making, evaluating.
• Children are able to articulate their intent and their thinking at each stage of the design and make process.
• Children retain their knowledge and skills and are able to make explicit links between previous learning and their current challenge.
• Children are able to develop ‘cultural capital’ that will enrich their learning across the wider curriculum.
• Creativity and innovation are nurtured through design by exploring the world in which we live and work.
• At the end of Year 6, pupils have a solid understanding of processes involved in the design and realisation of a range of products and civil engineering.

Ongoing assessments take place throughout the year. Teachers use this information to inform future lessons, ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately. This data is analysed on a termly basis to inform and address any trends or gaps in attainment.