At Summerseat Methodist Primary, children receive a design and technology curriculum which allows them to exercise their creativity through designing and making. The children are taught to combine their designing and making skills with knowledge and understanding in order to design and make a product. Skills are taught progressively to ensure that all children are able to learn and practise in order to develop as they move through the school. Evaluation is an integral part of the design process and allows children to adapt and improve their product, this is a key skill which they need throughout their life. D&T allows children to apply the knowledge and skills learned in other subjects, particularly Maths, Science and Art. Children’s interests are captured through our topic based approach, ensuring that links are made in a cross curricular way, giving children motivation and meaning for their learning. 

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression in our DT Steps in Learning document. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. We usually teach DT in short blocks. 

Teaching of DT follows the design, make and evaluate cycle. Each stage is rooted in technical knowledge. The design process is rooted in real life, relevant contexts to give meaning to learning. While making, children are be given choice and a range of tools to choose freely from. To evaluate, children are sked to evaluate their own products against a design criteria. Each of these steps is rooted in technical knowledge and vocabulary. 

The key skills we teach the children are: 

• Sewing and textiles
• Cooking and nutrition 
• Electrical and mechanical components
• Structures