Design and Technology

Design and technology at Holy Ghost allows children to combine their creativity and imagination with their developing knowledge and skills to design and create products and solve problems.

Fully aligned to the goals of the national curriculum, children will acquire skills and knowledge in each of Design and Technology's key areas:  Structures, Mechanisms / mechanical structures, Electrical systems (KS2), Cooking and Nutrition, Textiles and Digital World (KS2). 

Within each key area, the development of the core skills (design, make, evaluate) and technical knowledge is detailed, to ensure that progression if logical, achievable and measurable.

Knowledge and skills developed

• Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
• Follow a process clearly-applying prior knowledge and new knowledge to their pieces.
• Build and apply their knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users.
• Critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others suggesting improvements where needed.

DT class work in practice

Reception

In Reception, the children were tasked with drawing their own faces. They developed their own success criteria to decide what they would have to include on their faces, and where these features would go.

DT Reception 2024-2025

 

Year 1

In the Autumn term Year 1 were exploring mark making and line drawing to develop different techniques to create a drawing from observation. We experimented with different materials through observational and collaborative pieces, and looked at how artists choose materials based on their properties in order to achieve certain effects.

Year 2

The children’s design brief was to develop a suitable chair for Baby Bear to sit on. We explored the concept of stability, and investigated various methods to strengthen structures so that they would not collapse. We thought about the materials we could use to strengthen our chairs, and developed improved solutions. Finally, we tested our chairs to see if Baby Bear could sit on them without breaking them!

Year 3

This term, Year 3 have been exploring the theme "Growing Artists" and the final piece was to create abstract flowers. We visited the Botanical institute, where we explored a variety of plants and flowers. The children had the opportunity to draw and paint these plants, enhancing their observation skills. They also observed different seeds under microscopes and sketched their findings. This hands-on experience allowed them to engage directly with nature and apply their artistic talents.

 

DT Year 3 2024-2025

 

Year 4

During the Autumn term, Year 4 have been exploring the topic of pavilions. We have been examining structures and looking at what features what a structure stable. We then developed our own success criteria to for creating a pavilion. We planned what the design was going to look like and what materials we would need. We considered the different ways that we could use our materials and different positioning for their structure to stand up successfully. 

Year 5

This term, we studied art installations. We were thinking about small spaces and how we could transform them into looking like a life-sized space. We took into account space and scale when creating our 3D structures. Whilst we were creating we had to think about how to make each of our objects the correct size in relation to each other and how we could position it to make it look as realistic as possible. Once we had finished our designs we then used iPads to take pictures of our final installations, thinking about the angles to take the pictures to ensure our sculptures looked as life-size as possible. 

 

DT Year 5 2024-2025

 

Year 6

This Autumn term, Year 6 were designing and making our own waistcoats. We first had to design out waistcoat, taking into account its chosen purpose. Then, we used a combination of textiles skills such as attaching fastenings, appliqué and decorative stitches to assemble and decorate our waistcoats.

 

 

 

Design & Technology Curriculum overview