The Design and Technology (DT curriculum at Our Lady and St Rose of Lima Primary school has been designed to inspire our children to be innovative and creative thinkers who have an appreciation for the product design cycle through ideation, creation and evaluation. Our ‘knowledge rich’ and ‘practical’ curriculum enables our children to develop key skills in designing, making and evaluating as they continue along their educational journey at our school. We want our children to be inspired by engineers, designers, chefs and architects and therefore our curriculum provides them with opportunities to explore and create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles, electrical systems and food products.

Our DT curriculum follows the National Curriculum of years one to six and is also a fundamental part of our EYFS curriculum, providing opportunities for our children to design and make products through the topics taught in both Understanding the World and Expressive Arts. We believe it is vital this this exposure begins at an early age so that they can understand what it means to design and make products and, as they continue through school, recognise how to solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts.
In Early Years, DT is explored throughout Understanding of the World, Expressive Arts and Forest School rather than being a distinct lesson. They are able to explore elements of structural construction through junk modelling, mechanisms through vehicle design along with food and technical knowledge or some tools through their forest school experience. This early exposure allows them to then draw on this understanding as they move into Key stage 1.

Through Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, the key concepts of design and construction explored in EYFS are developed and challenged further through the following six key areas:
•Mechanisms
•Structures
•
Textiles
•Electrical Systems (KS2)
•Digital World (KS2)
•Cooking and Nutrition (Spade to Fork)

Our curriculum ensures that, through each unit, our children are taught to:
•Design
•Make
•Evaluate
•Use technical knowledge

Through teaching progressively, our children are able to build on their knowledge and develop their skills in DT as key concepts are revisited and skills extended throughout their education journey here at St Rose. For example, the children will explore mechanisms in Nursery through their ‘All About Me’ unit where they construct emergency vehicles. As they move into Reception, they investigate toys through their ‘Transport Past and Present’ unit where they begin looking at wheels and axles. In Year 1, the children build upon this knowledge of mechanisms through their ‘Wheels and Axles’ unit and develop this further through the use of Lego Spike in Year 2 in their Amazing Amusement Park unit.

Whilst we use Kapow for many of our lessons, we have also incorporated opportunities to learn outside through Forest School and Spade to Fork. We believe it is vital our children are given opportunities to learn outside, particularly as some of our children will not have a lot of outdoor space at home. Our Forest School and Spade to Fork units therefore provide them with the chance to use tools in a safe, outdoor environment whilst also designing and making nutritious meals that incorporates the food we have grown at our school and teach about diet and seasonality. We have also deliberately linked our computing curriculum to provide practical computing in the classroom and enhance the children’s programming skills. We have invested heavily in new technology to enhance our teaching and provide our children with the best opportunities to learn with the most up-to-date technology. Our curriculum therefore provides them with the chance to learn 3D drawing through the use of Tinkercad and print their structures with our 3D printer. They are able to develop their computing skills in programming through the use of Micro:bits and are able to create mechanical systems that are programmable with our Lego Spike kits. We believe this technology will enable our children to leave our school with transferable skills that they can build upon as they continue their educational journey and in future careers.

A fundamental part of the curriculum is the way in which our children’s knowledge is retained and assessed. The use of knowledge organisers within each topic provides the children with the key vocabulary and learning points that they will encounter during the topic. These are accessed during each lesson and help form part of their prior learning activities. We believe prior learning and regular reassessment are a core element of our curriculum design as they not only provide the children with the tools to facilitate their knowledge recall, but also the teachers with a mechanism to assess their long term retention of key information.
Our curriculum has been designed so that all children are able to access the rich knowledge taught throughout each year group. We recognise the need to expose our children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds to an extensive range of high quality vocabulary. Each lesson has therefore been designed to introduce and explain new vocabulary, including the origins of the words, to enhance their vocabulary. DT lessons provide not only practical opportunities to make a range of products but also to evaluate and reflect on their own designs and improvements that could be made. Our use of technology throughout the curriculum, ensures that our children have immediate access to resources that will assist them with their learning and understanding.

It is our intention that our curriculum will enable all our children to fully appreciate the important role that DT plays in the ever changing world that God has created for us through their primary education. By the end of Year 6, we want our children to be equipped with a creative imagination that enables them to confidently design and make products that solve real problems so that they may, in the future, become future architects, engineers, designers and chefs who will be able to make an impact on God’s world.

Outdoor Learning

The Outdoor Learning Curriculum of Forest School and Spade2Fork are meticulously selected to cater to the needs of all children at St Rose and to provide them with opportunities for exploration, curiosity and risk-taking. As a school we intend to build children’s self-esteem, confidence, resilience and determination when using the outdoors. The curriculum aims to deepen children’s knowledge of the outdoor environment and to enhance the physical and mental health of our children with the benefits that the outdoors has to offer. Our main intention for the curriculum is to supply all our children regardless of their age with long-lasting enthusiasm and love for learning outdoors which will continue beyond their primary school experience.  

The teaching of our outdoor learning curriculum is planned as a free flow and self-initiated learning process where the children take responsibility for their learning and use the activities set out for them which we intend to help them find their own learning characteristics. The Forest School planning is carefully constructed to cater for different areas of learning – teambuilding, art and crafts, tool-based learning and curriculum linked learning. This allows for the scope of outdoor learning to be covered in every session. Spade2Fork sessions are taught in a rotation of planting and growing, maintenance and cooking to enhance the children’s breadth and knowledge of the outdoor space and the opportunities that arise from these experiences. We intend for all the children in the school to experience a well-balanced and progression of learning so that when they leave in year 6 they have a depth of outdoor learning, knowledge and skills to use in later life.   

Our school is situated in Weoley Castle, a location where 53% of the children attending our school are pupil premium, which is above the national average. These statistics are our motivation for the outdoors curriculum where we strive to offer children opportunities for learning which may not align with their living environments and situations. We intend for all our children, no matter what their background experience, to be included in our fulfilling outdoor curriculum.  

Running through the learning in the school, including that of the outdoor curriculum, is the consistent relationships with the British and Catholic Values of the school. The sessions have the heart of the British values at the centre of the learning. The Catholic values are also featured in the planning and teaching of the sessions through focused areas in the outdoor area (prayer space) and planned meditations and activities linking to the Catholic faith.