Design & Technology

Intent

At Harpole Primary School, our Design and Technology curriculum is designed to prepare children for an ever-evolving world. It encourages pupils to become creative, practical problem-solvers—both as individuals and as collaborative team members. Through the study of DT, children combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social, and environmental issues, learning to design, make and evaluate products with purpose and thought.

Our DT curriculum provides opportunities for children to explore, investigate, develop, and represent their ideas, make products, and evaluate their outcomes. Children engage with a wide range of tools, materials, and media, helping them build vocabulary, dexterity, resilience, and an awareness of how design can improve lives. DT helps all pupils become discerning consumers and potential future innovators.

An Inclusive Curriculum

Our topic-based curriculum encourages child-initiated learning, giving pupils the opportunity to influence and shape their learning journey. Teachers have the freedom to respond to children’s interests, ensuring learning is dynamic, responsive, and meaningful. Revisiting and overlapping topics is not only welcomed but essential to deepening understanding and reinforcing connections.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are central to our DT curriculum. We believe learning should reflect both the diversity of the world and the lived experience of our pupils. Through our Beautifully Different approach, pupils are introduced to a wide range of ideas, contexts and figures in design and engineering, helping them see themselves as part of a diverse world. Carefully selected texts and resources are embedded across the curriculum to support this, alongside age-appropriate, open discussions around identity, fairness and representation.

For children with SEND, our intention is that every pupil receives a high-quality and ambitious education, regardless of need or background. We ensure that all practical activities are risk-assessed, adapted, and accessible, with differentiated tasks and supportive resources so every child can participate fully. Ingredients, tools and materials are provided by the school, removing any barriers to participation.

We do not use the term “disadvantaged” to define pupils. Instead, we are committed to ensuring that all pupils, including those in receipt of Pupil Premium, are supported to thrive—academically, socially, and emotionally. Our curriculum takes a holistic approach, embedding strong teaching with robust pastoral care, so that all children become resilient, independent thinkers who can adapt to challenges and pursue success.

Food and Nutrition

The teaching of food and nutrition holds a vital place in our DT curriculum. It is taught regularly across year groups, helping pupils understand healthy eating and equipping them with lifelong cooking skills. Cooking is also a creative expression and a gateway to independence and well-being. All food units are planned with sensitivity to allergies, intolerances, and cultural or religious considerations, ensuring every child is safe, respected and included.

Implementation

At Harpole Primary, our Design and Technology curriculum follows the National Curriculum’s structure of Design, Make, and Evaluate, all underpinned by Technical Knowledge. These elements help children build a strong understanding of design principles, practical skills, and the real-world context of their work.

We use the Kapow Primary scheme, which organises the subject into four key strands:

Design, Make, Evaluate and Technical Knowledge

The curriculum also places a special focus on Cooking and Nutrition, which we treat as a key area in its own right. Children explore where food comes from, healthy eating, and seasonal ingredients, alongside learning essential cooking skills.

Throughout their time at Harpole, pupils will revisit and develop their skills in six key areas:

Cooking and Nutrition, Mechanisms/Mechanical Systems, Structures, Textiles, Electrical Systems (Key Stage 2) and The Digital World (Key Stage 2)

Our curriculum is designed to build knowledge and skills over time through a spiral approach—where key concepts and techniques are revisited with increasing depth and complexity. Each unit is centred around a real-life design brief or scenario, encouraging children to consider the needs of others and solve problems creatively.

We use a variety of engaging teaching strategies, including independent, paired, and group work, hands-on activities, and digital tasks. Lessons are inclusive and differentiated to support all learners, with challenges provided to stretch those who are ready to go further.

To support children’s learning, we use knowledge organisers that help embed key facts and vocabulary. For teachers, each unit includes detailed planning and training videos to build subject knowledge and confidence in delivering high-quality, progressive lessons.

Our goal is to ensure all pupils leave Harpole Primary with the creative, technical, and practical expertise to participate confidently in an increasingly technological world.

Impact

Our DT Curriculum, following the Kapow scheme, provides well thought out lessons and topics that demonstrate progression. Most units each year follow a plan of evaluate existing products, design, make, evaluate and this will be evident in books through work and photographs.  In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods: 

  • reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes – we will use tracking grids to track children who are not meeting expectations or are exceeding them so that future teachers can be informed about which pupils may need more support or challenge. 
  • Pupil discussions about their learning, which includes discussion of their thoughts, ideas, processing and evaluations of work. 
  • Assessment of progress will be completed by the co-ordinator by requesting evidence of work and checking that children are developing design and make skills as they move through the school.
  • As designers, children will develop skills and attributes they can use beyond school and into adulthood.