Design and Technology

At St John's, Design and Technology will prepare children for tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. It will enable them to be independent, self-regulating learners who can identify problems and think creatively of how to solve them – both as individuals, and as part of teams. Through the study of inspirational people and events in the world of Design and Technology, children will themselves strive towards ‘excellence’. They will be confident in reflecting and evaluating past and present creations, considering their designs, uses and impact on the wider world. This background knowledge will be the foundation of DT learning and will provide children with the platform to develop skills, experiment, design, create and flourish. Through self-regulation and self- evaluation, children will be aspirational. They will be equipped with the knowledge and skills achieve well, attain high and shine, within St. John’s and beyond.

In Reception, DT is experimented with and taught as part of ‘Continuous Provision’ with some adult-led learning and some child-initiated learning with sustained shared thinking. Across the rest of the school, DT is taught as part of our Curriculum units alongside Art, History and Geography. This is a deliberate decision in response to the Stakeholder views as well as the high priority we place on deepening knowledge. In order for children to be excited and inspired, it is important they are fully immersed in the learning and can make links to other knowledge acquired – within DT and across the curriculum, rather than seeing learning in isolation. Within each year group, the timetabling of DT is flexible, depending on the topic learning journey. However, the timings average to approximately 1 hour per week. This ensures breadth and depth of knowledge and secure knowledge retention and skills progression.

Our Curriculum policy can be viewed here.

Design and Technology Outcomes