Welcome to our Design and Technology page.
My name is Miss McNeill, and alongside being the class teacher of Starfish (Year One), I am also the subject lead for Design and Technology.
Design and Technology is an inspiring, practical and important subject – and a very popular subject amongst our children! D&T provides our children with the opportunity to express their creativity and individuality with a purpose. It enables children to develop skills, knowledge and understanding of designing and making functional products. Our children love to talk about their learning, and show so much pride in their work. At St Paul’s, we believe it is important to nurture creativity and innovation through design, and hope to support our children to explore the designed and made world in which we all live and work. We want our pupils to develop the confidence to take risks, and to become reflective learners who are able to evaluate their own work and that of others. Design and Technology also supports children to develop their Maths and English skills and we often link some of the projects to other curriculum subjects, such as Geography and History. As a result, the children have benefitted greatly from being able to make connections across their learning in a fun and inspiring way.
Here at St Paul’s, we use the ambitious ‘Kapow’ scheme of work, to deliver engaging and purposeful sequences of learning. The scheme has a clear progression of skills and teaches children both the substantive and disciplinary knowledge they need to make good progress across the areas of D&T. The National Curriculum organises Design and Technology under four subheadings: Design, Make, Evaluate and Technical Knowledge. Each part of this design process is addressed within a unit of learning. Our children will revisit six key areas throughout their time at St Paul’s: Cooking and Nutrition, Mechanisms/Mechanical Systems, Structures, Textiles, Electrical Systems (KS2 only) and Digital world (KS2 only). The Kapow scheme is a spiral curriculum, which means the key areas are revisited again with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revisit and build on their previous learning. As a result, our children feel an enormous sense of accomplishment and pride, as their learning and final designs, become more impressive over their years at St Paul’s.
Please take the time to look through the incredible work our children have produced recently. We are so proud of their enthusiasm, focus and commitment during their D&T lessons. I am sure you will agree that their work is outstanding!