At Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School, we are committed to providing all our children with design and technological subject opportunities which are inspiring, rigorous and practical. At Our Lady’s School, we recognise that children are living in a highly developed technological world. Design and Technology provides the children with the opportunity to develop and use a range of skills that will prepare them for a constantly changing society, increasingly dependent on technology.

 

Using creativity and imagination, pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. They acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on cross curricular knowledge such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art.

 

It is important to us that pupils learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on their daily life and the wider world. Fostering an early interest in design and technology skills is important to us as children develop an understanding of how the subject will make an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being our students and their environments. Design and technology opportunities will ensure children have the chance to develop their creativity, self-esteem, social interaction as well as confidence.

 

Each class explicitly teaches design and technology skills three times a year, allowing children time to understand and rehearse creative, technical and practical expertise which methodically builds upon previous skills taught. They are encouraged to solve real-life problems by designing and making products and then evaluating their design against the set criteria. As pupils progress, they should be able to design innovatively, generate ideas, problem solve, explore and analyse products, structures and mechanisms. 

 

In addition to this, the Design and Technology curriculum aims ensure children are aware of the innovative designers that solved everyday problems and so have shaped the world in which we live today, inspiring the current generation to do the same.