Design Technology

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Imagining, designing, creating and solving problems

At Bosley St Mary's CE Primary School, we believe that every child has the potential to become a creative thinker, designer and problem-solver.

Our Design and Technology (DT) curriculum encourages children to use their imagination, knowledge and practical skills to design and make purposeful products. Through exploring how things work, investigating materials and developing their own ideas, children learn to solve problems, make decisions and understand how design and technology shape the world around them.

We aim to develop confident, resourceful and innovative young designers who enjoy practical challenges, take pride in their creations and recognise that their ideas can make a positive difference.

How We Teach Design and Technology

Our curriculum combines explicit teaching of technical knowledge and practical skills with opportunities for creative thinking, investigation and purposeful making.

We place particular emphasis on:

• Designing: Understanding the needs of users, developing ideas and creating designs that meet a clear purpose.
• Making: Selecting and using appropriate tools, materials, components and techniques accurately and safely.
• Evaluating: Testing products against design criteria, reflecting on their effectiveness and identifying improvements.
• Technical knowledge: Understanding how materials, structures, mechanisms and systems work and applying this knowledge to practical challenges.
• Cooking and nutrition: Developing an understanding of healthy eating, food preparation and the principles of nutrition.
• Designers and innovation: Exploring how significant inventions, designers and technological developments have influenced everyday life.
• Technical vocabulary: Developing the language needed to explain design decisions, describe processes and evaluate finished products.

Through modelling, guided practice, investigation and practical projects, children develop the knowledge and skills to turn their ideas into increasingly sophisticated products.

Our Curriculum Approach

At Bosley St Mary's, we have developed a carefully sequenced, two-year rolling Design and Technology curriculum based on Oak National Academy's curriculum resources.

We have chosen Oak because of its evidence-informed, knowledge-rich approach, developed with input from subject specialists and curriculum experts. Its carefully structured learning supports progression in technical knowledge, practical skills, vocabulary and design processes.

We have thoughtfully selected and adapted the curriculum to reflect the needs of our children, our mixed-age classes and our unique setting, whilst ensuring coverage of the National Curriculum.

Our approach combines Oak's curriculum design with practical, purposeful projects and opportunities to explore real-world problems, ensuring that Design and Technology is ambitious, inclusive and meaningful for every learner.

Thinking and Working Like a Designer

We encourage children to recognise that successful design involves creativity, technical understanding, careful planning and a willingness to improve ideas.

Children learn to:

• Investigate existing products and consider how and why they have been designed.
• Identify the needs of users and develop clear design criteria.
• Generate, communicate and refine creative ideas.
• Select appropriate materials, tools and techniques.
• Make products safely and with increasing accuracy and independence.
• Test and evaluate their work, identifying strengths and possible improvements.
• Apply knowledge from other subjects, including mathematics, science, computing and art.

As children progress through school, they develop increasing independence in making design decisions, solving practical problems and evaluating their work.

Design and Technology Beyond the Classroom

Design and Technology helps children recognise how creativity, engineering and innovation influence everyday life.

Our rural setting and outdoor learning environment provide valuable opportunities for practical investigation, designing and making, and exploring how materials and structures are used in the world around us.

Where appropriate, we make connections with other curriculum subjects and real-life experiences, helping children understand how their developing knowledge and skills can be applied to solve meaningful problems.

Through cooking and nutrition, children also develop practical life skills, an understanding of healthy food choices and increasing confidence in preparing food safely.

Design and Technology for Every Learner

We believe that every child should have opportunities to design, create and succeed through practical learning.

Through clear demonstrations, accessible resources, appropriate scaffolding and carefully planned challenges, we ensure that all children can participate in an ambitious Design and Technology curriculum.

We encourage children to experiment, take appropriate risks, persevere when things do not work as expected and recognise that evaluating and improving a design are essential parts of the creative process.

Design and Technology provides opportunities for children to discover practical talents, develop resilience, work collaboratively and experience the satisfaction of creating something purposeful.

Our ambition is for every child to leave Bosley with the creativity, technical knowledge, practical skills and confidence to design, make and evaluate products, solve problems and contribute positively to an increasingly technological world.