At Thames View, Design and Technology helps pupils become creative, practical and thoughtful problem-solvers. Pupils learn to design, make and evaluate purposeful products using a range of materials, tools and techniques. Through Design and Technology, children develop confidence, resilience, independence and the ability to improve their ideas over time. Our Design and Technology curriculum follows the National Curriculum and is shaped around the needs, context and experiences of pupils at Thames View.
How Design and Technology develops Global Citizens
Design and Technology helps pupils understand how people create products and solutions to meet real needs. Pupils learn to think about users, purpose, safety, materials, sustainability, nutrition and the impact of design choices. This helps them see that good design can improve lives, solve problems and support healthier, safer and more sustainable communities.
Our Design and Technology Narrative Threads
Our Design and Technology curriculum is organised around three narrative threads. These help pupils revisit important design ideas over time, moving from early construction, exploration and food preparation to more complex designing, making, evaluating and problem-solving.
Thread 1: Structures and Safety
Pupils learn how structures are made, strengthened and improved. They begin by exploring construction sets before designing and making products such as simple nets, castles, chocolate boxes, long ships and recycling bins. Pupils learn to think about strength, stability, materials, joining techniques and how products can be made safe and fit for purpose.
Thread 2: Mechanisms and Efficiency
Pupils learn how movement can be created and controlled. They begin by exploring wheels, ramps and surfaces before developing their understanding of sliders, levers, wheels and axles, pulleys, gears and cams. Pupils learn how mechanisms help products work more effectively and how design can make tasks easier, quicker or more efficient.
Thread 3: Cookery and Nutrition
Pupils learn how food choices affect health, wellbeing and the wider world. They begin by preparing simple foods such as biscuits and fruit before developing their understanding of local products, breads, food sources, fair trade, space food and rationing. Pupils learn about ingredients, preparation, healthy choices, culture, sustainability and how food can be designed for different people and purposes.
How we teach Design and Technology
In Design and Technology, pupils revisit prior learning before being introduced to new technical knowledge, vocabulary and practical skills. They explore existing products, consider users and purpose, practise key techniques and use this knowledge to design, make and evaluate their own products.
Pupils are taught to think like designers by asking questions, testing ideas, choosing appropriate materials, solving problems, improving their work and evaluating how well their product meets its intended purpose.
Vocabulary and subject talk
Vocabulary is taught explicitly in every unit. Pupils learn and revisit important vocabulary such as design, make, evaluate, user, purpose, product, structure, strengthen, stable, mechanism, lever, slider, wheel, axle, pulley, gear, cam, ingredient, nutrition, healthy and sustainable. This helps pupils explain their design choices, talk about how products work and reflect on how they could improve their outcomes.
Teachers model high-quality design and technical talk and provide sentence stems where needed so that all pupils can discuss ideas, methods and evaluations with confidence.
Inclusion and Removing Barriers
Pupils may have different levels of confidence, fine motor control, vocabulary, practical experience or access to design and making opportunities beyond school. We use modelling, visual examples, step-by-step teaching, practical exploration and opportunities to practise techniques so that all pupils can develop confidence as designers.
Teachers also use clear explanations, explicit vocabulary teaching, adapted tools, visual support, partner work and practical resources so that all pupils, including pupils with SEND, can access the same ambitious Design and Technology curriculum.
Progression in Design and Technology
Our Design and Technology progression map shows how pupils build knowledge, vocabulary, practical skills and design thinking from Nursery to Year 6. This will be added to the page once finalised.
Useful Websites
BBC Bitesize Design and Technology
STEM Learning
Design Museum
Food a Fact of Life
The James Dyson Foundation
DK Find Out