Design Technology

Design and Technology In St Michael in the Hamlet

Intent

At St Michael in the Hamlet School, it is our intent for Design and Technology to prepare children to take part in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. Through a variety of creative and practical activities, children are taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in a process of designing and making, whilst drawing on subjects such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art.

We will offer children the chance to develop creative and critical thinking and encourage them to make positive changes to their quality of life. We will encourage children to become autonomous and creative problem-solvers, both individually and as part of a team. Children will learn how to take risks, becoming increasingly resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable members of our community, who can reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and its impacts. We have recently introduced the PlanBee Curriculum for Design and Technology, as a basis for our Design and Technology lessons from years 1 through to 6.

Design and Technology Subject Overview

An overview of the topics taught across each year group can be found by clicking on the following link – DT Subject Overview 2023 – 2024.  In years 1 to 6, the subject is taught during one half term within each term. Our EYFS children will encounter the subject throughout the year, as staff develop and carry out our flexible EYFS Curriculum. This takes account of the Prime and Specific Areas of Learning,  after looking at the individual needs and interests of our children, taking into account their different starting points.

Coverage of the Design and Technology National Curriculum Objectives can be found by clicking below…

  • Key Stage 1
  • Key Stage 2
  • In EYFS, DT skills are mainly developed through the ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ and ‘Physical Development’ Areas of Learning. The children are offered a variety of experiences involving different media and materials and are taught to use a selection of tools correctly and safely. They are then encouraged to explore what they have learned within the setting.

Progression of Knowledge and Skills encountered in each area of Design and Technology can be found by clicking the following link – Progression of Knowledge and Skills

The Design and Technology policy document can be found on the School Policy page.

WINNER!! Food For Thought Chef Competition

Food for Thought (who provide dinners in over 90 schools around the city) recently held a competition to find a budding chef who could devise a recipe for a healthy and nutritious new dish for their menu. Many of our children took part and 3 were successful! Have a look at the entries below from the overall winner (from Year 4) and our 2 runners up.

We hold Design and Technology Family Learning sessions, where families can work together with their children tackling different design challenges. Click on the tent below to link to a Padlet of pictures from our latest session, which involved building shelters!

Family Learning – Shelters Padlet

Examples of work happening across the school.

Children EYFS have been exploring a range of materials and tools, both in their independent learning and related to the stories they have been sharing.

In Nursery, the children have been focusing on the 3 Little Pigs, using a range of construction materials, and Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, exploring, making and evaluating porridge and its ingredients!

In Reception, we were focusing on The Gingerbread Man – investigating ingredients, combining them, using kitchen utensils to roll out our the mixture and cut shapes into it, then evaluating our finished gingerbread men in terms of appearance and taste!

In Key Stage 1, Year 2 have been looking at different puppets and have sew and decorated their own owl puppets, whilst developing their sewing skills as part of their textile topic.

In Lower Key Stage 2, Year 3 have explored the direction of movement in different mechanisms in pop-up books, as part of their topic focusing on levers and linkages. They then designed and made their own moving picture. Here are a few examples of their amazing paper engineering…

Year 3 then went on to look at the work of different British inventors, including Alexander Graham Bell (who invented the telephone), Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web) and W.B. Wilkinson (who invented reinforced concrete). They also learned about the Anderton Boat Bridge and looked at hydraulics. Here they are in action, testing some of the ideas, including destruction testing of reinforced modroc!


In our Year 4 textile project, after investigating a range of existing stockings and evaluating them in terms of their visual appeal and functionality, we planned and created our own Seasonal Stockings, using a range of joining stitches and embellishment techniques.

In Upper Key Stage 2, Year 5 have enjoyed their bridge-building topic. After first investigating different types of bridges and seeing how much weight they could carry, they worked collaboratively to create these amazing structures.

Year 6 children were cooking up a storm, creating a range of delicious burgers, including vegetarian and vegan options, as well as using different varieties of meat, dressings and flavourings. The whole upper corridor smelled incredible!

The children in Year 6 also enjoyed creating strong and stable wooden frameworks for their birdhouses, before turning their attention to the aesthetics. Don’t they look amazing?