Design and Technology

At Holy Family, Design and Technology provides pupils with opportunities to design, create and evaluate purposeful products. We encourage children to be curious, creative and resourceful, developing the knowledge and skills to explore ideas, solve problems and learn through the design process.

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced, with each unit focusing on a particular area of Design and Technology. Across the school, pupils develop their knowledge and skills through Structures, Mechanisms and Food and Nutrition, exploring each area in depth and building progressively on their prior learning.

Pupils follow a clear design process, learning to research, design, make and evaluate. They investigate existing products and explore relevant designers, engineers and inventors to understand how and why products have been created. These examples provide inspiration and demonstrate particular principles, techniques and approaches, rather than products for pupils simply to copy.

Children use their learning to develop their own designs for a clear purpose and intended user. They select and use appropriate materials, components, ingredients, tools and techniques before evaluating their finished product and considering how it could be improved.

Through Food and Nutrition, pupils develop practical skills and an understanding of ingredients, healthy and varied diets and where food comes from. They learn to prepare and make food safely, applying their knowledge to purposeful food projects.

As pupils progress through Holy Family, they develop an increasingly secure understanding of structures, mechanisms, food and nutrition and the design process, alongside the practical skills and subject-specific vocabulary needed to communicate their ideas. Through purposeful projects, pupils develop creativity, problem-solving, resilience and independence, enabling them to approach design challenges with confidence.