Design Technology
The primary Design and Technology (DT) curriculum is important because it helps children develop practical, creative, and problem-solving skills through hands-on learning and real-life design challenges. It supports thinking skills linked to cognitive development as children plan, make, and evaluate products, learning how to turn ideas into functional outcomes. DT also builds resilience and independence as pupils test, improve, and sometimes redesign their work when things don’t go as expected. It encourages teamwork and communication when working on group projects, and it helps children understand how design and technology are used in everyday life. For parents, supporting DT at home—through simple making activities, cooking, or building projects—can reinforce creativity, confidence, and problem-solving skills in a practical and enjoyable way.
At Staverton Primary School we use Kapow for our DT curriculum. Kapow's primary DT curriculum for mixed-age classes offers a spiraled, skill-based approach, covering statutory National Curriculum requirements through a 2-year rolling program. It enables children to design, make, and evaluate products using a "design-make-evaluate" cycle while fostering collaboration and technical skills in structures, mechanisms, and cooking.
Please find further details for Cycle A and Cycle B here:
Design and technology: Curriculum guides for parents and carers — mixed-age
Benefits for Mixed-Age Classes:
- Collaboration: Encourages team-based problem-solving across different year groups.
- Flexible Learning: Differentiated guidance ensures tasks are accessible to all learners while offering challenges for those children who need this.
- Real-Life Context: Projects are often connected to real-world scenarios, making the design process relevant to children's lives.
