Design and Technology

Curriculum Aims

Wisdom – our children 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.

Independence – Our children develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.

Creativity - Pupils learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens.

Kindness – Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world.

Progression and Curriculum Documents

Art and Design & Design and Technology Curriculum Overview  

At Newick, we use  resources from the DT Association to inform and guide our DT teaching. This provides high quality planning and resources, enabling teachers to deliver DT lessons at an excellent standard, whilst ensuring a clear progression of skills and knowledge in the subject.

Early Years

Children begin in Early Years learning how to safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, whilst also representing their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology.

KS1

In KS1 these skills are developed further through beginning to create simple designs for products to fit specific criteria, selecting the most appropriate tools for the task, evaluating and assessing existing products alongside their own. The KS1 children also learn about balanced diets and develop their skills cutting, peeling, grating and preparing fruits and vegetables. 

KS2

In KS2 the children use their prior learning in KS1 to begin to produce more complex, step by step design plans demonstrating that they can apply their knowledge of different materials, tools and techniques. In upper KS2 this culminates in using computers to aid the design process. The children begin to consider how they could improve their work, how suitable their products are for the intended user and draw influence from key figures in the field of design and technology. Children begin to use electrical systems in their designs and in upper KS2 can apply their understanding of computer programmes to monitor and control products.  

By the end of KS2 progression moves on from understanding a healthy diet to applying knowledge of celebrating different cultures in cooking and the seasonality of ingredients. Alongside this our children develop practical cooking skills including tasting, measuring, preparing and presenting complex recipes. 

To find out more about the DT Association please click on the below link:

DT Association

A Casefile: Y1's DT Project to Design and Make a Puppet for an Entertaining Puppet Show to Otters

A Casefile of Y1's DT project to Design and Make a Finger Puppet for a Puppet Show to Otters

A Casefile: Y4's DT Project to Design and Make a Suitable and Attractive Biscuit Box for the Dementia Cafe

A Casefile of Y4's DT project to Design and Make a Biscuit Box

A glimpse at the fantastic DT happening in Early Years.

DT in Early Years

Our DT Cookery in the Community

We are delighted that our Year 3's delicious soup is now on the menu at The Pantry. They worked so hard to design and make  healthy and nutritious soups which were suitable for the customers of The Pantry, and it is amazing to see the winning soup available to the public! Well done Year 3.   

Cookery Club

Cookery club runs on Thursdays from 3:15-5:00, and is open to children from Year 1 - Year 6, cooking everything from Spaghetti Bolognese to Apple Crumble. Here are some photos of our children cooking up a storm (and enjoying the results of their efforts!)

Cookery Club 22-23

STEM Breakout Day

On Tuesday 1st March the children enjoyed a whole day focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Design Technology played a huge part in this day, and the children loved learning from experts, and having a go at their own projects. 

STEM Breakout Day

Engineering Club

Every Friday a group of Year 6 pupils meet with Mr Taylor, to design, fundraise for, build and then race two battery powered Goblin cars. This year the children have designed two amazing cars, one which raises awareness of de-forestation, and the other which upcycles crisp packets to raise awareness of the importance of recycling. The children have also written to local business and members of the community to raise money and sponsorship opportunities for their vehicles. The club consolidates the children's DT knowledge across the school, encourages the use of transferable skills, and gives the children the experience of carrying out the full design process from start to finish, with a real life purpose and audience. A big thank you to Jon Harman and Kalpna Robertson for their support and time in helping with the club!