design and technology
At St Vincent’s, our Design and Technology curriculum encourages creativity, imagination, and innovation. Through practical projects, pupils design and make purposeful products that solve real problems. They learn to evaluate ideas, test materials, and refine outcomes while developing resilience, critical thinking, and collaboration. Our curriculum connects learning to real-world contexts, showing pupils how designers, engineers, and chefs influence the world around us.
Intent
Our intent is to inspire pupils to become resourceful, innovative, and enterprising. Through a knowledge-rich and practical curriculum, children learn to think critically and work creatively to design and make solutions. Design and Technology at St Vincent’s is underpinned by our three school principles:
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Exemplary Behaviour – calm, purposeful classrooms where creativity and problem solving flourish.
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Knowledge-Rich Curriculum – carefully sequenced units that build knowledge of materials, mechanisms, and nutrition.
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Explicit Teaching – clear modelling of processes within the design–make–evaluate cycle.
Implementation
Our curriculum is structured around the design–make–evaluate process. Each project begins with research and planning, moves to hands-on making, and ends with testing and reflection. Pupils learn about real designers, engineers, architects, and chefs to inspire their thinking, and they apply cross-curricular skills from Maths, Science, and Art. Projects progress from guided making in the early years to independent innovation in Upper Key Stage 2.
Impact
By the end of Year 6, pupils will have developed technical competence and creative confidence. They will be able to design, build, and evaluate their work thoughtfully, understanding how products are shaped by user needs and aesthetic choices. Pupils will appreciate how Design and Technology connects to future careers in engineering, architecture, product design, and food technology.
Design and Technology Long Term Plan