Stanton Community Primary School and Nursery

Design and Technology

Design and Technology Statement of Intent

Here at Stanton Community Primary School it is our intent that Design and Technology is taught with purpose and real-life links that could be expanded on in future learning or careers. Our Design and Technology curriculum covers the skills outlined in the national curriculum through broad, challenging and inspiring units of work, sometimes linked topics.

We focus on process over product because we value the thought process behind children’s ideas. This is an idea Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, touched upon in his work, suggesting that children learn about their world through physical interaction. There are different areas within Design & Technology, these are; design, structures, mechanisms, electrical control and a range of materials, including food.

‘It must not be forgotten that the basic law of children’s creativity is that its value lies not in its results, not in the product of creation, but in the process itself. It is not important what children create, but that they do create, that they exercise and implement their creative imagination.’

Our food focused lessons are enhanced by the enabling environment that is our dedicated and well equipped children’s kitchen. We understand how important cooking and nutrition is in terms of life skills and have carefully thought about what we teach our children to cook and why. It is our intent that this is cheap, fresh, seasonal food with a focus on variety, nutritional benefits to our bodies and minds and that it can easily be replicated at home for the whole family.

In addition, the school aims to develop the children’s use and understanding of technical vocabulary associated with this subject. This is so that the children can articulate the skills that they have applied, the equipment that they have used and describe the material/s and features of the product that they have made. This is evident in the Kapow scheme of work we use to structure our sessions. 

Our pupils will understand how to be safe and work according to key principles aimed to keep the individual safe. Importantly, they will build resilience when things go wrong and be able to analyse their own work in order to understand how to better themselves. Our intent is that we want our children to be open minded, independent, respectful, resilient, active, creative and forward thinking when designing, making and evaluating.

Our Curriculum

Click here to see how our learning is mapped to the National Curriculum.  

National Curriculum Mapping in DT at Stanton

Children Learning in Design and Technology 

Design and Technology in Early Years and Foundation Stage

Child-led learning is integral to the Early Years curriculum and we support our children to follow and explore their own interests.  This allows for a greater depth of learning and understanding and much higher levels of wellbeing and engagement. Adults model how to use Design Technology to aid children in their pursuits and scaffold learning to enable them to reach a deeper level of understanding.  Planning, designing, making and developing skills and knowledge are all fundamental parts of the Kapow scheme, which provides a variety of opportunities in all of these areas as children explore different materials, processes and outcomes.

Recording Design and Technology

Useful Documents